> To Henry C.K. Liu:
> Is it not true that in ethnically Han Chinese parts of
> Asia that Daoism is associated with a pro-laissez faire
> attitude towards economics whereas Confucianism is
> associated with a pro-state-intervention-in-the-economy
> attitude?
> Also, it would seem that Buddhism has almost no
> economic content at all. Certainly E.F. Schumacher argued
> in his _Small is Beautiful_ that "Buddhist Economics"
> implies being satisfied with not too much, and thus
> presumably supports pro-ecology sustainable development.
> But in Thailand it is pro-laissez faire with little
> environmental concern and in Tibet is/was pro-feudal. More
> a matter of meditating on Emptiness, I guess...
> Barkley Rosser
Precisely why, in good Unitarian fashion, I regarded Buddhism as a rich source for selective appropriation, rather than a new faith to embrace in place of the disillusioning old one.
Oh, Shame on me for my imperialist intellectual plundering!
Though some would say such rootless ways were the epitome of Buddhist non-attachment.
-- Paul Rosenberg Reason and Democracy rad at gte.net
"Let's put the information BACK into the information age!"