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Terrorism - right or wrong?
betaboy
Veteran
This is a rather controversial matter. Some people say terrorism is wrong no matter what. No justification. Others say, "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." They also say that since society is barbaric, it has no right to judge other barbarians; that's hypocrisy. And so on.
What is your view, as a human being and as a Buddhist? If the Buddha were living today, what would he say? Dull platitudes like 'don't kill', 'be good' etc., or will he go to the bottom of things?
I hope people can be civil while discussing this, thanks.
What is your view, as a human being and as a Buddhist? If the Buddha were living today, what would he say? Dull platitudes like 'don't kill', 'be good' etc., or will he go to the bottom of things?
I hope people can be civil while discussing this, thanks.
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This discussion has been closed.
Comments
The actual term "terrorism" is a made up word that governments use to scare the populace into giving up rights and becoming subjugated. It is also a term that dehumanizes people and makes any reasoning for their actions null and void. They are just evil people who hate us for no good reason.
As far as violence and non-violence. A violent revolution almost always leads to future violent revolution, whether its 10 years later or 100 years later. The only way to create lasting change is with non-violence.
The buddha said it best:
Hatred is never appeased by hatred
Only by non-hatred is hatred appeased
This is a law eternal.
(Sure, if one investigates the conditions under which terrorism fosters, they'll come to some understanding of and even empathy towards terrorists. However, if a rabid dog is charging at you, the correct action is clear. You emphathizing with the dog's disease does not make that action less correct).
It's also a slur-- a word tossed around to mean people who oppose the state, or state policy, or people you just don't like.
Its better to work with in a system, more likely to be peaceful, but some systems don't really care what the people think. Even there, some solutions are going to exacerbate samsara, make a difficult situation worse.
Maybe French freedom fighters are a good example more skillful resistence, especially when they were blowing up rail roads. Ghandi of course. The peaceful revolutions in eastern europe where the desire of change was so universal it reach into the group of people who ran eastern europe. (Didn't work in China though.)
I read a few books about Ghandi in the past few months. He actually advocated for violence if you could not stay true to the principles and lifestyle of non-violence... He didn't care much for hypocrites lol, go all the way or do not go at all! My kind of guy.
Darnit, I do my best to abstain from participating in such discussions: nothing good has every come out of it. Don't know what bit me this time. I guess I really crave for at least something to be black-and-white. And, I guess, the very point of Buddhism is that there's nothing like that.
Peace and farewell, y'all. And report any suspicious activity to police
Speaking of reporting i was at the movies to see lone survivor and they have the normal "safety briefing" before as usual.. However this time the first thing they said was report suspicious persons lol. 1984 arrived on America very slowly over the last 40 years, greatly sped up by 911.
We started this century defining terrorism as isolated acts of destruction specifically against civilian populations to inflict punishment and create fear with no purpose beyond that. Nobody expects an act of terror to cause the government to throw up their hands and surrender. It's pure revenge.
Nowdays, any actions that get in the way of the status quo are defined as terrorism by the authorities simply for the emotional knee-jerk reaction. The local police and government officials declared the ragtag bunch of protesters in the US known as the "Occupy Wall Street" movement to be "domestic terrorists", believe it or not. Are the protesters trying to cause fear and terror? Are they using violence to make a point? Of course not.
Buddha and Buddhism must conclude that terrorism as causing harm to the innocent is wrong. Period. But not everything called terrorism fits that definition.
Is waking up from our own delusions, an act of terrorism to our ego?
Terrorism is just the fruition of a them and us mentality, held by anybody.
So now terrorism is any behavior that disrupts the status quo.
But let's take the example of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. The SA gov't was a terrorist gov't itself. At first the opposition to it used peaceful means (that's where Gandhi got his start, for those of you who didn't know). Although this worked to draw international criticism to the gov't, it didn't stop anything. Oppression and violence by the gov't escalated. So the local anti-apartheid movement switched tactics to engage in armed resistance. That created enough of a mess (along with the international movement toward stock divestment in SA industry) that the gov't was forced to negotiate and reach a settlement, opening the door to full democracy, i.e. majority rule, 1 vote per person.
What conclusion to draw, here? Well, Mandela famously decided violence was not the way. It only begets more violence, more death. Perhaps the tide would have turned without the move to armed struggle. I recommend everyone here see the new film, "Mandela, The Long Walk to Freedom", to decide for yourselves how best to handle such an extreme situation.
:thumbsup: (Buddhist film recommendation of the month )
When he got banned last time he was posting with a much more negative tone. People didn't seem to respond so well.
if people like his threads, i can only assume they are unaware of what is really going on in the thread.
Could we have a category lower than "General Banter? " In reference to reincarnation, we could call it "Still in Beta."
He does provide a platform for all of us to examine questions that we might not otherwise bother with. One can be suspicious of his motives or the inflammatory ways his questions can be coached but the posted responses to his threads are no less Dharmic than any other thread.
Oh yeah..... Can't wait to get the soundtrack.....cried through half of it....
laughed at some...(He who has the trousers is the daddy)..hahaha
The woman who played Winnie was fantastic! Just a stunning
performance.....I loved when he was explaining fear to the
group of white men.....The ending....'Love can be taught'..
*walks off into the African sunset*....lovely movie.
I still don't understand why equality costs so much?
The struggle continues ......
Honestly........no.
Which is why it costs so many people so many things.
The contradiction is hard to swallow....But I can't even
imagine what it takes to lead a revolution of that size....
Buddhism gives us the eightfold Path, and the Precepts - the first of which is a blinder.
That says it all for me.
There's little point discussing whether terrorism - which ends up killing thousands upon thousands of innocent people every time - is Right or Wrong, on a Buddhist forum.
For discussions regarding the film 'Mandela', someone may feel free to open a new topic in "Arts and Writings" .
To discuss the film, that is.
Thanks to all who participated fruitfully.