[Buddha-l] Bourgeois Buddhism

[Gad Horowitz]

Friedrich Engels wasa bourgeois communist without whose financial support 
Karl M. would not have got very far.
Engels belonged to posh clubs and owned racehorses.
Marx was not a moralist.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Hayes" <rhayes at unm.edu>
To: "Buddhist discussion forum" <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 11:30 AM
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Bourgeois Buddhism


> On Mar 14, 2012, at 8:31 AM, Joy Vriens <joy.vriens at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> With a bit of luck and everything going according to plan, we could send
>> over one of our greatest lights by May the 6th.
>
> Yes, Sarkozy would fit in very well over here. I can envision him on a 
> ticket with Newt Gingrich. He might be a bit too rational to fit in with 
> Rick Santorum just now, but after a few years of living here and reading 
> de Tocqueville he would probably learn to fit in. Another possibility for 
> Sarkozy would be somewhere near the top of the gaggle of oil barons now 
> running the Canadian Reich.
>
> As for Buddhism, the only Americans I have seen coming even close to an 
> authentic Buddhist practice are the Amish. The rest of us are getting 
> around in airplanes and automobiles, watching television powered by 
> electricity generated by burning coal, and using the energy-hungry 
> Internet to send unnecessary emails like this one from our laptops powered 
> by highly toxic lithium batteries. If most of us had to live even half a 
> day by Buddhist standards, we'd have to be carted away in an ambulance.
>
> Marx wrote about bourgeois communists who rationalized their luxurious 
> lifestyles by saying they were in using their resources for the good of 
> the workers. The label "bourgeois Buddhist" is perhaps to so far off the 
> marks.
>
> Richard Hayes
> _______________________________________________
> buddha-l mailing list
> buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
> http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/listinfo/buddha-l
>