[Buddha-l] Extreme practice

[Dan Lusthaus]

Herman Zelders asks:

> But please explain, Dan, why do you speak of 'we' ?

This is followed with some purile options. The simple answer is the "we"
means the Americans, of which I am one. Since I am old enough to have
protested the war in those days, and even debated my high school principle
on the war (we were supposed to debate among students; the teacher found my
arguments so devastating that she called in the principle, who tried to
defend the war, but to no avail; back then I didn't think much of it, but
looking back after years of being a teacher, I now suspect that the teacher
herself must have had some sort of similar, probably friendly debate with
the principle, and was trying to use me as a proxy to get a few shots in on
him; or maybe not), I was a draft counselor, I have nothing to be personally
ashamed of in all that. Yet I still use the "we." Dismiss that as merely the
rhetorical stylings of common English, or, if one prefers to make noisy
cases where there are none, let's flip this around and question citizens -- 
especially of democracies -- who dissociate themselves from all
responsibilty for what their country does. Whose responsibility is it, if
not theirs? I wanted the war to end not because some "they" was conducting
it, but because "we" were conducting it. Like Richard, I fought the draft
system that would have sent us there.

As for the change in attitude in the West concerning the war, I would point
to a host of other factors as responsible for that change, but debating the
Vietnam war at this late date on a list devoted to something else makes no
sense. Not realizing that is what cost Kerry the election and we had four
more years of Bush to contend with.

That, as a gesture, Thich Quang Duc's immolation was a memorable event is
obvious. We are talking about it. That it was, either then or now, a clear
political statement is as obviously not the case, since there is no clear
consensus among us of exactly what he was protesting (was it protesting the
banning Buddhist holidays, etc., or the rounding up of Buddhist leaders on
the run, or something else, or all of the above? Did he ignite himself or
have helpers?). It was an inchoate gesture.

Dan