[Buddha-l] Is this guy an, er, budding bodhisattva of IT?

[Richard Hayes]

On Sunday 29 April 2007 11:37, Jim Peavler wrote:

> I guess I am more romantic. I read about ancients who plundered,
> raped, killed, and covered all the fields with salt.

I recall similar stories. There are also some interesting accounts of how the 
army of Chinggis Qagan (who name was Italianized as something like Genghis 
Khan) played polo with the heads of decapitated villagers. And just this week 
I read an account of a battle in ancient China in which a victorious general 
ordered that the entire opposing side, which had surrendered their arms, be 
executed; reportedly, 400,000 soldiers were summarily killed. And Mengzi 
(whose name was eventually Latinized as Mencius) speaks of the fields of 
farmers being so soaked in human blood from battles that all people who have 
eaten the produce of those fields are forced ingest that blood and thus to be 
cannibals.

There is a collection of brilliant essays by Wendell Berry entitled 
Citizenship Papers. In the first essay in the collection Berry makes the 
point that what we now call terrorism has always existed. It used to be 
called war. War has always involved mass slaughter, the killing of civilians, 
torture, rape and other unpleasant actions and therefore has always caused 
terror to those who have had to witness it. The current administration in the 
United States, however, has cleverly manipulated language in such a way 
that "terrorism" now denotes mass slaughter, killing of civilians, torture 
and rape done by "evil-doers" and "enemies of freedom," whereas "war" means 
mass slaughter, killing of civilians, torture and rape done by those who are 
fighting evil and defending freedom. While terrorism is condemned in official 
documents (such as the infamous USA PATRIOT act) as the moral equivalent of 
piracy and slavery, war---even preemptive war that is considered illegal by 
all United Nations rules and guidelines---is seen as something that is 
necessary to combat evil. Since it combats evil, it is considered not as a 
necessary evil, but rather a necessary good. Amazingly, quite a few Americans 
bought into that tortured rhetoric.

My guess is that on hearing such reasoning as that used by many of the 
national leaders in the world today, the Buddha would gag. (This buddha ex 
machina reference magically makes this squib suitable for publication on 
buddha-l.)  

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico