[Buddha-l] Re: buddha-l Digest, Vol 32, Issue 17

[Richard Hayes]

On Thursday 18 October 2007 14:31, Joy Vriens wrote:

> I don't consider the act of
> the president of Columbia University as pertinent, unless he would address
> Bush in a similar manner.

Well, if David Horowitz is right, American academic institutions are filled to 
overflowing with professors who "blame America first" and hate George W. 
Bush. So I suppose the odds are in favor of the president of Columbia 
University being a Bush-hater who would speak to Bush in about the same terms 
he spoke about Ahmadinejad. After all, everything he said about Ahmadinejad 
is true of Bush. Perhaps he just got confused about the names. Bush and 
Ahmadinejad are pronounced just about exactly the same in American English.

> For me 
> there is not much difference between the two leaders, except that one is
> more aware of media tactics and image management than the other.

I agree. Bush is quite inept at media tactics in comparison to his counterpart 
in Iran. (Actually, Ahmadinejad is not Bush's counterpart. Ahmadinejad is 
only the president of Iran, a relatively unimportant position in his country 
compared to the megalomaniacal amount of power the US president now has.)

> E.g. how would you like the president of Columbia
> University to receive the Birm! anese junta leaders? Would you like him to
> ignore the blood on their hands while shaking them? Any allusion to it
> would probably be considered very rude by them. 

It would be inexcusably rude to invite them and then hold them up to public 
ridicule while introducing them. Shaming people in public is bad diplomacy, 
and completely incompetent psychology. It almost guarantees a hostile 
response in return. (In Ahmadinejad's case, it backfired. When verbally 
abused, he responded quite graciously, even though it was apparent that his 
feelings had been hurt by the surprise attack on his character.)

> Giving the Dalai Lama the 
> highest US decoration? How rude! the Chinese say.

It WOULD be rude to invite the leaders of China to the US and then shame them 
in public. It would also be rude to be invited to China and insist on 
praising the Dalai Lama while there. I am still recovering from the Dalai 
Lama's rude remarks, right in front of Bush, about the importance of the US 
taking a lead in the campaign against global warming.

>  I am not sure about the
> motivations of the president of Columbia University though.

I think his motivations are transparent enough. He was being severely 
criticized for inviting Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia. To make himself 
look good in the eyes of those who wanted his blood, he chose to shame the 
guest he had invited.

> I am not that sure, the Buddha told his students when they were behaving
> like jerks and idiots.

I don't recall any such instances. The Buddha told some people they had 
misunderstood him, but he did not shame them or ridicule them or speak of 
them as jerks and idiots. Or so I recall from what I have read. I wasn't 
actually there.

-- 
Richard P. Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes