[Buddha-l] Buddhism and the "status quo"

Joy Vriens joy.vriens at nerim.net
Fri Sep 22 00:54:10 MDT 2006


>> > And so the aging hippie Buddhist wannabes still root for antisemitic 
>> > facists. The more things change, the more they stay the same. (sigh) 
 
>> I'm searching feverishly through that sentence for a grain of 
>verisimilitude. 
 
>Note the plural in wannabes. 
 
>There were, of course, never any hippies. That was a media term which the 
>people being so described never embraced (as the rest of us aging folks will 
>remember). I spent part of that period on a Marxist horse ranch (not in 
>Alberta).

Marxist horses? So George Orwell didn't invent Animal Farm after all?

> The locals considered us cowboy hippies. We were Venceremos 
>veterans and wannabes (the aging among us might know what that means). 

Born slightly too late, I have always had lots of admiration for hippies. That's what they call those who look for freedom without responsibility, right? I am trying very hard, but I am still unable to realise that lofty ideal. And are there any other Buddhists than "hippie" Buddhists? If we could teleport the Buddha and his bikkhus in our time, the definition hippie would fit them to a tee. Living on society while avoiding any responsibility in it. I admire them with envy from behind my office desk.  

Joy



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