[Buddha-l] Political views of Buddhists

[Antonio Ferreira-Jardim]

I am probably an outlier here:

Economic Left/Right: 1.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.49

I would agree with this assessment. In terms of social policy, I place
myself as a liberal and yet I am firm believer in market-driven
economic policy.

I am also an active member of the Australian Liberal Party (Centre
Right coalition of liberals and conservatives) as opposed to the
opposition Australian Labor Party (Centre Left coalition of social
democrats and socialists).

By the way, I think the International Chart is a total load of crap.
Robert Mugabe is VERY right wing (sexist and racist) on social policy.
Ratzinger is HARDLY more socially liberal  than Olmert! The Dalai Lama
has let out a few homophobic corkers in the past and I am yet to hear
him propose that women can attain complete buddhahood whilst born in a
female body. How exactly are George Bush's economic policies more
neo-liberal than John Howard?! Chirac is hardly an economic liberal!
etc etc.

These tests are all very amusing but all they seem to show is that
these groups are somewhat more diverse than people may first assume.

What would REALLY be interesting would be to look back through the
wide variety of Buddhist tradition and the Buddhist texts to see how
differing communities and textual traditions answer some of the
questions in this survey.

Antonio Ferreira-Jardim

On 12/24/06, Stephen Hopkins <stephen.hopkins at ukonline.co.uk> wrote:
> In a seasonal spirit:
>
> Economic Left/Right: -8.50
> Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.97
>
> Best,
>
> Steve Hopkins
>
>
> >
> > One last chance to take the silly but entertaining questionnaire at
> > http://www.politicalcompass.org/questionnaire
>
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