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

[jkirk]

My post on the ancients, and their wars, was offered ironically. It seems to 
me
that the deranged and deluded human species has always made vicious wars and 
that there's no sign that they will stop doing it.
Joanna
====================




> 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
> _______________________________________________
> buddha-l mailing list
> buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
> http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/listinfo/buddha-l
>
>
> -- 
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.467 / Virus Database: 269.6.1/778 - Release Date: 4/27/2007 
> 1:39 PM
>
>