Tibet and the attraction of Buddhism

Max Sawicky sawicky at epinet.org
Thu Jul 2 13:42:49 PDT 1998



> At 10:46 AM 7/2/98 -0700, Brad DeLong wrote:
> >The Great Leap Forward (Roderick MacFarquhar says what, 50
> million dead?),
> >the Cultural Revolution (50 million imprisoned or exiled?),
>
> Which is what 5-6% of the total population? I guess the potato famine
> wiped out about what 30% of the Irish population?, yet I did not hear Brad
> blaming capitalism or British government for that atrocity.

In "Prizzi's Honor," my favorite line is from Kathleen Turner, who has astonished her beau Jack Nicholson with the knowledge that she, like him, is a professional assassin with a work output in the double-digits. To his disbelief she says, "Well, it's not that many as a percentage of the population."


> I am always apalled by the sensitivity of American intellectuals to the
> oppression of their class brethern by working class thugs, and their
> insensitivity to the deaths and oppression of peasants and workers.
> Apparently, Brad & Co. do not give a shit about those killed, tortured,

Now you may not have been around when Brad at one point gave a long, ecumenical list of cases of mass murder.

Secondly, we were talking about whether Tibet was or would be better off without the yoke of the Chinese, either under the old regimes (both communist and prior) or the current one. So the reference to China did not reflect bias, or at least that particular bias.

Cheers,

MBS



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