The Tyranny of Cliches

I've been a fan of Jonah Goldberg for a long, long time. I read the first of his three books, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning not long after it was published in 2008. Due to circumstances which I won't go into now, I've only recently downloaded (and read) his book from 2012, The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas .

The Tyranny of Cliches is ten years old, so naturally some of what's in the book is dated. In it's overall description of Liberals and Progressives, however, the book is still relevant today.

Of course, there is no mention of Donald Trump, but Goldberg was warning us of the dangers of populism in 2012. Anyone familiar with Jonah Goldberg knows he is no fan of Trump and he's resisted the call to jump on the populist bandwagon that far too many "Conservatives" have climbed aboard in this age of the Donald.

He's one chapter dealing with the question of science. Liberals like to claim that they're the ones who support science while the Conservatives fight against science, tooth and nail. I'll admit that there is a group of Conservatives who believe in a young Earth, with no evolution allowed; with Noah's ark and all the rest. I'm not one of those. As far as Democrats being the party of science, I've addressed that in a blog post - Isn't Biology "Science" Too?. As I wrote in that post:

Far too many folks, who believe themselves to be following the science, seem to ignore the science involving DNA. These people seem to forget "science" when science tells us that the human fetus is, well, a human. A human fetus can only grow to become a fully functioning human. A human fetus cannot magically transform into a dog, or cat, or dolphin or some alien life form. Killing a fetus in the womb is killing a human being. That is an undeniable scientific fact.
The DNA of the fetus also proves that the fetus is a separate and distinct individual and not a body part of the mother. Prematurely removing a fetus from a mother's body, by way of abortion, is not the same as removing an appendix.
While we're on the subject of DNA, examining the DNA shows that human beings come in only one of two genders. An individual's DNA and chromosomal makeup reveals whether the person in question is male or female. No matter how you may feel about whether or not you're in the "right body", your DNA reveals your gender.

Another chapter in Goldberg's book covers another subject which I've written about myself. Liberals and Progressives look down on traditional Christianity, but still looking to be "spiritual", they will claim to be Buddhists or adherents of other Eastern religions. However, in spite of the fact that traditional Buddhism doesn't permit abortion, when the Dalai Lama released his first book in Great Britain, his editors got him to water down his views on abortion so as not to alienate his potential buyers.

I could go on and on, but I'd rather leave the heavy lifting to Jonah Goldberg.It's well worth the read.

The Reading List for September, 2022

September is nearly at an end and the time has come for me to post yet another monthly book list. Frankly, my heart isn't in it.

There are only four books on this month's list - a very disappointing number, to say the least. Unfortunately, my choice of books for September weren't very interesting. Of the four books, I can only recommend one - In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden. Even it has fallen in my ratings - from a five star to a four star. Still, it's a book worth reading, however.

So, for better or worse, here is the list of books read in September.

The Five Red Herrings  Dorothy L. Sayers
Good Karma : How to Create the Causes of Happiness  Thubten Chodron
The Deerslayer  James Fenimore Cooper
In This House of Brede  Rumer Godden

Buddhism and Abortion

 

 

Although I've been studying Buddhism for a good many years, I haven't given much thought to the Buddhist teachings regarding abortion until recently. I had assumed that Buddhists viewed abortion in a way similar to Christians or Hindus. 

While reading about Robert Pirsig (author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance ) I came upon a bit of interesting information regarding Pirsig and abortion.

Not long after the murder of his son from a previous marriage, Pirsig's second wife became pregnant. Pirsig's immediate reaction was to terminate the pregnancy. Coincidentally, this was also the view of his wife. The reasons Pirsig gave for this decision were not those typically used by those in the pro-choice camp when trying to justify an abortion. His wife, Wendy had not become pregnant due to rape or incest. When they came to the decision to abort, it was too early in the pregnancy to know of any potential birth defects. Pirsig does not mention any particular financial reasons.

According to the forward in a later edition of  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance , Pirsig simply felt that due his being over 50 years old at the time of his wife's pregnancy, he did not want to go through the rigors of bringing up another child. It was case of  "I, me, mine."

Pirsig, and again, coincidentally his wife, later came to change that decision to abort. Pirsig came to believe that the child in his wife's womb was the reincarnation of his murdered son, Chris. Luckily for their daughter Nell, the Pirsigs believed in reincarnation......otherwise she would have been killed in the womb.

After learning of Pirsig's decision, I began to look into the Buddhist teachings on abortion. I sent a message (via Facebook) to Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron asking for an explanation of the Buddhist views on abortion. Thubten Chodron is a Buddhist nun who has co-authored, with the Dalai Lama several books on Buddhism. I was referred to her website, thubtenchodron.org with instructions to type "abortion" into the website's search engine. That resulted in these links:
current-world-scenarios-ethics
ethics-politics

In an interview linked to above, Thubten Chodron says,

"In the US, abortion is actually a more controversial issue. Clearly, Buddhism does not approve of abortion, because it involves taking life. Yet, we can’t be like some conservative people, who are strongly opposed even to contraception, which is another extreme. Personally, I don’t agree with handling the entire matter politically, which has caused a lot of suffering. In cases of unwanted pregnancy, the mother, the father, the baby—everyone involved—needs compassion. Once this becomes a matter of political debate, everyone argues and scolds each other, which only increases the suffering of the people involved. We should give them some personal space to make their choice." 

 "I would encourage the pregnant person to give birth to the child, and then afterwards give up the child for adoption, but that is my personal view. My little sister is adopted. I love her very much and I am so happy that her birth mother gave her for adoption, so that she became part of our family."

In the video linked to, Thubten Chodron says that the First Buddhist Precept tells us to abstain from taking life. She goes on to say that Buddhism teaches that, due to the process of rebirth, the fetus obtains consciousness upon conception and is thereby viewed as a human being. Consequently, abortion isn't acceptable in Buddhism.

In his books, Buddhism and Abortion and Buddhist Ethics: A Very Short Introduction , Damien Keown explains that within the traditional teachings of Buddhism there is no question but that abortion is not permitted - not only going against the First Precept, but very often other Precepts are broken as well:
Five Basic Precepts
1) abstain from taking life
2) abstain from taking what is not given
3) abstain from sensuous misconduct
4) abstain from false speech
5) abstain from intoxicants as tending to cloud the mind

Keown also notes that in spite of abortion being against traditional Buddhist teaching, the abortion rates in Buddhist countries are considerably higher than in most non-Buddhist countries. In Thailand, where a more traditional, conservative form of Buddhism is practiced, abortion is illegal, but the laws are not enforced. The abortion rate is very high, particularly among married women, who at the time of the book's writing, used abortion as the primary form of birth control. Ironically, he notes that the abortion rates among pregnant prostitutes in that country are very low; the difference being due to the belief that their being women (and prostitutes) is due to previous bad karma and the birth of a child - particularly a son - is a way for them to acquire merit.

Buddhists in the West tend to be "pro-choice". Western Buddhists are usually more Liberal than Christians. Some observers see the Western Buddhist's views on abortion to be more "Liberalism covered in Buddhist garments" rather than authentic Buddhism.

In Japan, the view among Buddhists is similar to the Western view, although Japanese Buddhists, unlike their Western counterparts, acknowledge that the unborn child is fully human. Some Japanese Buddhists attempt to deal with the contradiction by participating in a ritual known as Mizuko kuyō. Reasons for the performance of these rites can include parental grief, desire to comfort the soul of the fetus, guilt for an abortion, or even fear of retribution from a vengeful ghost.

It would appear, that when it comes to living up to their religious beliefs, Buddhists can be as hypocritical as members of other religious groups.