>On Monday, April 12, 1999 at 22:22:03 (-0400) Gunder Frank writes:
>>I found him perfectly normal and down to earth - just like me - and he
>>told me I'm a good guy too, just like him. need i go into more detail
>>about our talk about us and the world? anyway, that makes it hard for me
>>to believe what I just read about him here.
>
>What was the story I read about the American torture specialist? He
>was torturing a woman and went to the next room to take a phone call.
>I think the woman heard him say "I'll be home soon, honey. Love to
>the kids...", or some such.
I don't really know enough about the Dalai Lama to have an opinion about his character. I would hope he is a fine person, but as Alinsky pointed out, people who rise to positions of power hardly ever are.
But your vignette about the torture specialist reminded me of a parable the late psychiatrist Eric Berne used--
************* A young man came home one day and announced to his mother: 'I’m so happy! I’ve just been promoted!' His mother congratulated him and, as she got out the bottle of wine she had been saving for such an occasion, she asked him what his new appointment was.
'This morning', said the young man, 'I was only a guard at the concentration camp, but tonight I’m the new commandant!'
'Very good, my son,' said his mother, 'see how well I’ve brought you up!' ***********
Berne used the parable to illustrate that 'happiness' is not a sufficient parental child-raising goal. I've always thought it a wonderful illustration of how successful adaptation to a pathological society is positively undesirable on any scale larger than the individual.
le meas, Margaret