[Buddha-l] Extreme practice

[Zelders.YH]

To: buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
Subject: Re: Extreme practice

Dan Lusthaus wrote :

>Thanks for posting more on Thich Quang Duc. As you mention, others followed
>suit. As an effective tactic of the day, however, it was a bust. Certainly
>more dramatic than a Letter to the Editor, but ends up being just another
>form of preaching to the choir.

I'm not sure that I understand what you're saying here, Dan. Do you 
doubt the political effect of those self-immolations, or the effect 
of the ones that followed the first one ? Certainly the first one had 
a tremendous effect. I must be missing the point of your remark.

>Other self-immolation stories and videos
>Vietnam
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRWy69wRPJU&feature=related

Impressive footage, but that scene was staged for 'Mondo Cane 2' ; a 
movie made up of more and less shocking documentary and quasi 
documentary fragments. They tried to make it look like the real thing 
- note the car - but in reality, among other details, there weren't 
that many cops around or they certainly would have put a stop to it 
and not have been standing by passively.
Again, the real event is shown here : 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjpAh4rqTv4&feature=related with a 
comment by eyewitness/reporter David Halberstam

Herman