[lbo-talk] Re: Disagreement, Buddhism, Self-Realization

Christian Gregory christian11 at mindspring.com
Tue Dec 9 05:08:54 PST 2003



> While I agree that creation is vital, trying to "appropriate" causes
> the problem of attachment. Why can't beauty and other goods be
> appreciated rather than appropriated?

This is fine as an ethical principle, but disastrous as an axiom of political or economic governance. The price you pay for making sure everybody's got their view of reality right (ie. it's empty) is their freedom.

As the experience of Sri Lanka and Tibet suggest, having studied Buddhist thought needn't do much for making liberated society. The fragile accomplishment of liberalism is that it allows different views of what's good to practically coexist. A world that doesn't make room for that wouldn't be worth the political effort.

Christian



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