[Buddha-l] Was Mr. Pol Pot a Buddhist?

[Richard Hayes]

On Oct 13, 2012, at 8:37 AM, "Jo" <ugg-5 at spro.net> wrote:

> One also wonders what it was that converted Pol Pot into a mass murderer along the lines of a Stalin or Hitler. Was it simply a question of choosing a role model?

I think it's part of the logic of seeing agrarian labor as the true proletariat and everyone else as complicit in the oppressive colonization project. It was reported at the time that the Khmer Rouge targeted all people who lacked callouses on their hands, people who wore eyeglasses and, of course, all educated people as oppressors who enjoyed luxuries while the peasants toiled as slaves. They did not consider the killing of the privileged as murder but as just punishment for past, present and potential oppression of the proletariat. Buddhist monks, perceived as benefiting from the largesse of the wealthy and powerful also became targets of the Khmer Rouge. In that, I guess they anticipated Slavoj Žižek's claim that Buddhism is the perfect ideology for sustaining uncritical capitalist consumerism. (I am not sure why Žižek makes that claim. I think he perceives Buddhism as advocating acceptance of whatever happens to be the case and as seeing all attempts to reform anything as a manifestation of hatred.)

Richard Hayes