[Buddha-l] Extreme practice

[Dan Lusthaus]

Herman,

> I'm not sure that I understand what you're saying here, Dan. Do you
> doubt the political effect of those self-immolations,

No doubt. It did nothing to ease the anti-Buddhist persecutions in S.
Vietnam (and we wondered why the people never supported us); we continued to
replace on N. Vietnamese Catholic with another as puppet rulers of a
Buddhist country; so Catholic that they banned celebrations of Buddha's
birthday, etc. -- which was what was being protested in this case.

It was a spectacle that received international attention, but changed no
political opinions. People in the West were more baffled by it than
persuaded to translate that into political action. Those who were against
the war were already against the war. Those who were for the war dismissed
it as an act of oriental lunacy.

It is more hallowed now -- sociologists or anthropologists on the list can
explain to us such memorializing functions -- than at the time.

> Impressive footage, but that scene was staged for 'Mondo Cane 2' ;

Mondo Cane 1 and Mondo Cane 2 are two of my favorite movies (though I
haven't seen either for many decades). The filmmakers followed them with
Africa Addio, which was also a hoot.

YouTube contains quite a few "hoax" immolations -- Falungong's accusation
that the Tiananmin Sq immolation was staged by the PRC govt., etc. But the
fact that immolations are assumed to generate negative reactions, so that
for instance, Falungong would put so much energy into denying involvement,
goes to the initial issue of how "effective" such "protests" are. Obviously
FLG assumes that there is more political capital to gain from accusing China
of a hoax than from admitting to protesting Chinese policies by
self-immolation. Why do you think that is?

Dan