03-26-2004, 02:46 AM
America's Not Hindu Enough
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articl...000,curpg-1.cms
INDIA, March 18, 2004: Chris Satullo, a columnist with the Philadelphia Inquirer, believes a lot of problems facing the U.S. economy will be over if Americans learn to be Hindu. And he seriously states his case in this very unusual editorial for a major US newspaper.
Satullo thinks the current crop of politicians in the United States think much like the way the Christian doctrine tries to look at the world: good/evil, white hat/black hat. So they tend to blame the current ills faced by the American economy--job losses, lack of new jobs--on free-market capitalism. which means free-market capitalism is bad, says this review of Mr Satullo's recent editorial. What the country, and its politicians, need now is more of Hindu monistic philosophy, Satullo says. His argument is that Hindu philosophy does not try to paint the world into polar opposites. Instead, it tries to look at the unity underlying those dualities. So, Satullo points to Siva being both the creator and the destroyer. "Siva embodies a central paradox of life. To create the new, you must destroy the old. To create fire, you must destroy wood. To make oil, animals must die. For the automobile to prevail, blacksmiths must suffer. For Bill Gates to rise, the typewriter repairman must fall," says Satullo. Free-market capitalism, according to Satullo, is like Siva. It creates and destroys. But it is not a zero-sum game either. As free-market
capitalism does its Tandava dance, it leaves behind more wealth and more health for more people. And also much suffering, injustice, inequality, and corruption, much strain on families and on nature. In other words, according to Satullo, free-market capitalism is Siva. It is neither all good nor all bad; it is what it is, at once creative and destructive.
So, President Bush's rigid mind thinks in black and white. "He worships capitalism, no, make that the corporate perverters of it who fund his ambitions. He has one answer to every economic situation: tax cuts. Not only isn't he much of a Hindu; he needs work on the Christian thing too," says Satullo. The Democratic challenger to Bush, John Kerry is worse. He (and other Democrats) harp on "protectionism, mindless business-bashing that ignores the value of entrepreneurship, the use of public dollars to make bad bets on losing industries," he adds. "I'm looking for a sign, for someone who knows how to dance with Siva," Satullo concludes.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/sp.../sunday_review/
8179381.htm.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articl...000,curpg-1.cms
INDIA, March 18, 2004: Chris Satullo, a columnist with the Philadelphia Inquirer, believes a lot of problems facing the U.S. economy will be over if Americans learn to be Hindu. And he seriously states his case in this very unusual editorial for a major US newspaper.
Satullo thinks the current crop of politicians in the United States think much like the way the Christian doctrine tries to look at the world: good/evil, white hat/black hat. So they tend to blame the current ills faced by the American economy--job losses, lack of new jobs--on free-market capitalism. which means free-market capitalism is bad, says this review of Mr Satullo's recent editorial. What the country, and its politicians, need now is more of Hindu monistic philosophy, Satullo says. His argument is that Hindu philosophy does not try to paint the world into polar opposites. Instead, it tries to look at the unity underlying those dualities. So, Satullo points to Siva being both the creator and the destroyer. "Siva embodies a central paradox of life. To create the new, you must destroy the old. To create fire, you must destroy wood. To make oil, animals must die. For the automobile to prevail, blacksmiths must suffer. For Bill Gates to rise, the typewriter repairman must fall," says Satullo. Free-market capitalism, according to Satullo, is like Siva. It creates and destroys. But it is not a zero-sum game either. As free-market
capitalism does its Tandava dance, it leaves behind more wealth and more health for more people. And also much suffering, injustice, inequality, and corruption, much strain on families and on nature. In other words, according to Satullo, free-market capitalism is Siva. It is neither all good nor all bad; it is what it is, at once creative and destructive.
So, President Bush's rigid mind thinks in black and white. "He worships capitalism, no, make that the corporate perverters of it who fund his ambitions. He has one answer to every economic situation: tax cuts. Not only isn't he much of a Hindu; he needs work on the Christian thing too," says Satullo. The Democratic challenger to Bush, John Kerry is worse. He (and other Democrats) harp on "protectionism, mindless business-bashing that ignores the value of entrepreneurship, the use of public dollars to make bad bets on losing industries," he adds. "I'm looking for a sign, for someone who knows how to dance with Siva," Satullo concludes.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/sp.../sunday_review/
8179381.htm.