American Buddhist Perspectives
While Tibet has been foremost in my thoughts in recent days, that hasn’t stopped or even slowed down the pace of life here in my life and in the US.
Last night Kelly and I snuggled up to watch Barack
Obama’s now famous ‘A More Perfect Union’ speech on YouTube. For impressive commentary on it I suggest this post from Nacho Cordova, fellow Buddhist/Humanist blogger and professor of rhetoric at Willamette University. For my part, I was hugely impressed that Obama refused to lay blame; as he pointed out faults in one person or community he was quick to suggest that there are reasons for these faults, and that, hey, nobody is perfect. He handled the difficult issue of race in America with grace and poise.
What I think struck me the most about Obama’s speach, however, was his refusal to pander to the sound-byte hungry media (it was a bit amusing/irritating that CNN tried to fix this by pulling out sound-bytes of their own to display on screen during the speech). What’s more, he openly and rightly criticized the media’s handling of both his Rev. Wright’s comments and of the presidential campaigns in general.
I agree, and I’m glad that I don’t normally watch TV. In addition to this CNN annoyance, while Kelly and I were having her car’s oil changed, we caught 15 minutes of (also) CNN coverage in which they repeatedly played a 15 second clip of a South Carolina police officer running into a suspect with his patrol car on purpose – this was followed by about a minute of personal banter and jokes between the commentators – no analysis, no context, no attempt to educate the viewer on broader issues that might have brought this about… I thought CNN was the ‘good guy’ on TV! It was sad.
Fortunately, I did manage to get a number of perspectives and solid analysis from NPR over the past few days. I should also note my continuing gratitude for a communications course I took in college. It was called “Introduction to Rhetorical Theory” by Steve Schwartze, and it basically consisted of a historical survey of how to use language to manipulate the masses. So, to another one of my teachers, I say “thank you.”
I have been feeling a bit queezy about all the ‘stuff’ Kelly and I are going to get – are already getting – associated with our upcoming marriage. There are several things at play here, which I’ll work out (or at least work on) in coming days/weeks. One is my upbringing: my very happy younger days when our family had little money and my sense of personal responsibility in this world. Another is my education. From studies in psychology, religion, philosophy, and ecology, I’ve come to see a life of voluntary simplicity as the best for oneself and the planet – not that I’ve ever really lived up to my standards of what this life should be, but I’d like to keep trying.
Besides simply having all of this new stuff, I worry that 90% of it is going to be made in China, a country known for its appalling lack of labor standards – not to mention their willingness to put unsafe chemicals and fillers into products, resulting in numerous recalls over the last several years. So by filling my home with Chinese made products I seem to both support human rights abuses and put myself/friends/and family at risk from the unknown substances in these products. What to do? Suggestions?
And Work
I just added four new books to my stack, two Oxford ‘Very Short Introductions’ (VSIs), to Buddhism and to Buddhist Ethics, both by Damien Keown; Vic Mansfield’s book that I blogged about recently, and David Kalupahana’s book on Ethics in Early Buddhism. All that said, my real work for the next couple weeks will be in putting together a proposal for a large American Philosophical Association meeting next December. The proposal will be on something regarding Karma and/or theories of causation in early Buddhism. That and dusting off the old CV and looking for work for the fall in/around DC (Buddhist academic for hire!).
Good times. And I’m off!
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In