We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Harmonic Divergence: The Wealthy Are Dropping the Dalai Lama’s Name, Literally

Click here to access article by Jamie Johnson from Vanity Fair.

This accomplished filmmaker, and well-known member of the one percent who rule over us, gives us some inside information on his fellow club members who are distancing themselves from the Dalai Lama.

On this subject the brilliant filmmaker seems a bit naive. He doesn't seem to realize that his class has long been using the Dalai Lama and companions as a political weapon against China. Now that they are making so much money off Chinese investments and US corporations operating in China, the Dalai Lama has become somewhat of an embarrassment to them. It seems that they value the accumulation of wealth over everything else. So, what else is new? And, with friends like the one percent, I have my doubts about how "enlightened" the Dalai Lama and associated Buddhists are.