Welcome to another Random Wednesday on The Zen Pagan — a selection of links and short comments.
“Every man should have a built-in automatic crap detector operating inside him.” — Ernest Hemingway (quoted by Robert Manning, “Hemingway in Cuba”, The Atlantic)
Hemingway’s advice is more vital then ever. But as discussions of fake news come to dominate the news cycle, it becomes easy for mainstream sources of crap — ones friendly to the establishment — to marginalize alternative, critical voices. A prime example is the recent Washington Post story promoting the claims of the anonymous group “PropOrNot” that dozens of news sites ranging from WikiLeaks to the Ron Paul Institute and from Truthdig to the Drudge Report are “routine peddlers of Russian propaganda.”.
Relying on someone else’s list of “fake news” makes you part of the problem, as such lists are likely to be fake news in themselves. You need to develop your own crap detector. Look for a piece on that topic coming to TZP soon.
On Saturday, Joe Corre, son of Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, burned up a collection of punk memorabilia estimated to be worth $6.25 million. He told the crowd watching the protest that “punk was never, never meant to be nostalgic.”
I’m reminded of several incidents of Zen masters tearing up scriptures, articfats, or certificates: Hui Neng (if he every existed) tearing up the sutras, Ikkyu tearing up his inka scroll. A Sex Pistols t-shirt is not the Sex Pistols and cannot rock and roll.
Zen teacher Brad Warner recently wrote:
We need to stop shaming people for supporting Trump. This is especially true for Buddhists. American Buddhism tends to be dominated by left-wing types, the same way American Christianity tends to be dominated by right-wingers. There is a strong tendency in both groups to equate their political biases with some kind of Higher Truth. Both groups are equally blind to the idea that this might not be the case.
He asked readers who supported Trump to write to him, and posted some of the most interesting replies. The article is worth a read. But most important is Warner’s conclusion:
I think that line my correspondent said, “It is my opinion that most Trump voters are not racist, but that the media has portrayed them as such and thus that the racists feel that this means they are safe now” is really important. If non-racists who opposed Trump think that all Trump supporters are racists, you can only assume that racists who voted for him think so as well. This is why some of them have gotten so bold lately.
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