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

[Jo]

Hm--what I meant--------- but wasn't clear about--------- was that Zhizhek
ignored Christianity in those comments of his on Buddhism that you posted. I
never doubted for a minute that he'd read W. and T.  Anyway serves me right
for trying to contend with his penchant for making short and (un)sweet
wisecracks.  
Maybe you can turn him on to Loy and the others.
Joanna

-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
[mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Richard Hayes
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2012 2:38 PM
To: Buddhist discussion forum
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Was Mr. Pol Pot a Buddhist?

On Oct 13, 2012, at 12:32 , Jo <ugg-5 at spro.net> wrote:

> Žižek obviously overlooked the role of Christianity, both in fostering
capitalism as well as its current avatar, totalistic consumerism. See:
Tawney, _Religion and the Rise of Capitalism_, and Weber, The Protestant
Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

I doubt very much that Žižek has overlooked either Tawney or Weber. Both are
classics. He may have realized that the Buddhist ethic is the Protestant
ethic (as described by Weber) on steroids. Everything that Weber wrote about
secular asceticism in European (mostly German) Protestantism is even more
true of non-monastic forms of Buddhism.

> Or, if he didn't, his main project (far as I've read his commentaries) is
hyper-debunkmanship.

I think it's safe to say that Žižek (like Gregory Schopen) thrives on being
(or at least being perceived as) outrageously contrarian. He knows that
Buddhism has a ridiculously and largely undeserved good press, and he cannot
resist poking icons in the eye. Most people expect Buddhism to be
anti-consumerist and slightly left-leaning, so what could be more fun than
showing that an unintended consequence of hippie Buddhism's "accepting
things as they are" and "going with the flow" is that when the flow is
capitalist consumerism, Buddhism would offer no resistance at all. That's my
guess as to what is behind his claim, but I'll ask my colleague who is a
Žižek expert what the real story is.

While I'd be astonished if Žižek were not quite aware of Tawney and Weber, I
think there' s good chance is he not aware of David Loy, James Ford and
other Buddhists in the west who are rather critical of capitalism and of
consumerism.

Richard Hayes 

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