Dear List:
Charles writes:
> No, this making hay while the sun shines, eating, drinking and being
merry is a party where a good time is had by all. No suffering for others.
Suffering is an innate part of all human conduct. You boil water for a cup of tea and you kill micro-organsims in the water -- you cause suffering. The idea is to cause as little suffering as possible with your conduct.
^^^^^^ CB: If you don't boil the water somebody who drinks it gets sick and suffers. Of course, you have thought of this, and I guess you can guess that I'd stay focussed on human suffering avoidance, not go to the level of avoiding micro-organism suffering.
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> No, capitalism is the economic system that places first satisfaction of
wealth of the few, and in doing so creates gigantic _frustration of desire_
for the many. When we get rid of capitalism, our desires will be ever so
much more satisfied by spreading the wealth.
Unfortunately, the frustration is not as gigantic as you maintain -- malls are full of people indulging their desires and fetishes every weekend.
^^^^^ CB: Capitalism creates appetites that it can't fill,thus suffering.
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The key to capitalism is that it is a desire-based system. Since desire can never be satisfied and pleasure always fades (as Jon pointed out in his post), any system predicated upon desire is unstable.
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CB: All systems are unstable. Buddhism cannot stop change of society.
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Capitalism is made worse by the unequal distribution of the ability to satisfy desire. But even in a society where that power was evenly distributed, you are still faced with the problem of desire.
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CB: Nah. Desire is desirable. Life is struggle. If you are not struggling, you are dead. There is no escape from all suffering, as Marx taught. To live is to suffer some. Give up your flight from suffering and live ! You only live once.