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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Z268 who wrote (8943)	7/28/1999 9:12:00 AM
From: Bosco	Respond to of 9980

G'day all [re: Stratfor on Falun] I guess my attitude, or lack thereof, of the outfit is fairly well known, so I won't rehash here. While I agree with Steve Y. of the potential problems of the ruling hierarchy and thus the possible consequences of having power gone on the wrong hands [the irrational,] this is not the 1st time! This happened as recent as the 89 Tiananmen incident, which resulted in a temporary brain drain in HK when the fear of being ruled by the "irrational few" ran high. Unlike Stratfor, I can see the concern of Falun both from a number of perspectives. To begin with, anyone who has versed in Chinese history will know the repercussion of the Boxer uprising. But if one is to go begond Chinese history, there are enough ancedotes even in the US, like Jonestown and Branch Davidian. For some reasons, the state - any state, for that matter - is always wary of these. Sometimes, the concerns are legitimate, like AUM. Sometimes, they are not. The one irony about this Falun situation is that if the Chinese government had not destroyed Buddhism, especially Tibetan Buddhism by destroying Tibet, this would not have happened. To elaborate, if one were to accept Marx's slogan "Religion is the opium of the mass," then one would know destroying the human tendency to obtain a certain state of mind would be difficult. That's why the native indian has codified the use of mind altering substance in religious rite. By and large, the cultivation of insight and traquility is highly codified in Buddhism. Without it, socialism simply is not adequate to fill that void while people still have the yearning, especially after the immediate survival is satisfied [haven't heard anyone bringing up Maslow lately <VBG>] best, Bosco