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How labor-state Progs resist modernization

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D.C. collectivists never take enough

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Dalai Lama: I Am A Marxist

'Free Tibet' exposed as Progressive hoax

Last week, when the Dalai Lama was in Minneapolis, I had a chance to go to a conference attended by nearly 150 Chinese students. Luckily, I ended up being privy to a fascinating meeting. I sat at the back of the slightly-overheated and jam-packed conference hall of a hotel in downtown Minneapolis, and the Dalai Lama engaged with the students on topics ranging from Mao to Marxism to China-Tibet relations.

The Dalai Lama’s good humor and his frequent use of Chinese words (Chinese political slogans, communist party titles, names of legendary leaders) sent the students into sporadic fits of giggles. Midway through the conversation, His Holiness, much to their surprise, told them “as far as socio-political beliefs are concerned, I consider myself a Marxist.” “But not a Leninist,” he clarified.

During the question and answer session, a student said that the Marxists these days criticize consumerism because they do not understand the difference between “consumption” and “consumerism.”

He also asked about the contradiction inherent in the Dalai Lama’s economic philosophy and Marx’s critique of religion. The Tibetan leader answered that the Marx was not against religion or religious philosophy per se but against religious institutions that were allied, during Marx’s time, with the European ruling class.

He also provided an interesting anecdote about his experience with Mao. He said that Mao had felt that the Dalai Lama’s mind was very logical, implying that Buddhist education and training help sharpens the mind. He said he met with Mao several times, and that once, during a meeting in Beijing, the Chinese leader called him in and announced: “Your mind is scientific!”—an assessment that was followed by the famous line, ”religion is poison.”

(from religiondispatches.org)

Mandela, Alinsky, O.J. Simpson

On this day: June 12

Future essayist Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday (1942)

ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa (1964)

b: David Rockefeller (1915); d: Saul Alinsky (1972), Philip Vera Cruz (1994), Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman (1994)

Community Organizing for the New Progressive Era