Comments | erudito: Zen at War

erudito

Zen at War

Mar 03, 2007 10:33

Brian Daizen Victoria’s Zen at War is a study of how Zen Buddhism became deeply complicit in Japanese militarism

Brian Victoria, a Soto Buddhist priest, directly challenges the “touchy-feelie” good image that Buddhism has in the West. Especially Zen Buddhism in the US. Zen at War is particularly confronting in what it shows about D T Suzuki’s ( Read more... )

samurai, religion, buddhism, history2, books2

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increasingly succumb to worship of the will..... wizard_foots March 3 2007, 05:08:50 UTC

You have put your finger on something which has been vaguely bothering me about Steyn for quite some time. And you are correct. He is a Triumph Of The Will guy after all.

Is this the Projection Thing happening again? As in: I will become an intellectual follower of the guys I hate the most, because... I spend too much of my life obsessed with them....

Re: increasingly succumb to worship of the will..... erudito March 3 2007, 06:28:00 UTC

It became much clearer to me when I decided that the key issues in Iraq apropos the Coalition intervention were competence and capacity.

I think projection is very much part of it. It is surprisingly easy to end up mirroring the logic of those you are opposing. See French Revolutionaries/Communism and Catholicism/Orthodoxy. Or, for that matter, American theocons and the Left.

But it also simplifies things in all sorts of encouraging ways. Determination Is All You Need and If Only Folk Were As Determined As I, All Would Be Well are not complicated ideas ...

Re: increasingly succumb to worship of the will..... deathbeast March 3 2007, 12:22:58 UTC

Hey all,

I would be interested to hear more about Steyn/Hanson and the 'worship of will' tendency, I'm not sure I totally understand it.

cheers,

deathbeast

Re: increasingly succumb to worship of the will..... erudito March 3 2007, 12:49:52 UTC

Both Steyn and Hanson have this tendency to write as if it is all about Just Having The Courage To Stay The Distance. On the basis that the person with the Bigger Will Wins.

Without denying that determination matters, this is not a good way to look at things. It is the Anglosphere's enemies who operate like that. Both Hitler and the Japanese Militarists were all about how they were going to be victorious because their Wills were greater. (The Americans in particular were discounted because they were all weak and materialist and decayed by the good life and lack of racial/cultural fibre.) There is a fair bit of that among the jihadis as well ( ... )

Re: increasingly succumb to worship of the will..... wizard_foots March 3 2007, 13:22:49 UTC

Oh yes ( ... )

Re: increasingly succumb to worship of the will..... taavi March 4 2007, 02:33:52 UTC

Too right. Slim, Wingate, and all the western military leaders who understood guerilla warfare seem to have dropped off the radar.

all the western military leaders whoguerilla warfare seem to have dropped off the radar. wizard_foots March 4 2007, 13:17:11 UTC

AAAArgh!!!! I know. Not to mention the incomparable Sir Gerald Templar. Whoa... do we need him right now!

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