[lbo-talk] Your letter to Amy Goodman

Christian Gregory christian11 at mindspring.com
Sat Sep 27 09:30:16 PDT 2003



>Blaming the Dalai Lama for the crimes of the Tibetan theocracy is not
like blaming Marx and Marxism for Stalin. It is like blaming Stalin for Stalin.

I'm genuinely curious as to which crimes you want to prosecute him for. Is it the general crime of being born as the Dalai Lama and stepping into the leadership of Tibet at the age of 15, when the Chinese sent 80,000 troops over the border? I mean, are you really arguing that at that point he should have dismantled the political structure of the country in order to better defend against the Chinese? Or that he should have just capitulated to the Chinese? Or are you saying that the Dalai Lama made up lists of enemies and had them brutally murdered?

In exile, the Dalai Lama drafted a democratic constitution for a future free Tibet, and declared that he himself would never hold political office. You can regard this as a cynical ploy to regain power, but if you are really interested in the plight of Tibetans, then it would make more sense to support the cause of their freedom and then work to make sure that the Dalai Lama kept his promises.

Christian

P.S. I am genuinely interested in good political histories of Tibet, if you (or anyone else) has references.



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