Zen at War
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... )
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... )
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.
It leaves out, or seriously undervalues, capacity and competence. You end up with Stalingrad--feeding more and more troops and effort into the wrong fight at the wrong place in the wrong way until your opponent pulls a Zhukov and crunches your weak points. The Allies did not win WWII because their will was greater.
To either reduce it to a matter of Will (as both Steyn and Hanson do at times), or write as if Will is very much the dominant factor, is what I mean by the "worship of will" tendency.
Reply
People often forget that part of the USA's success has been their ability to be flexible. Black Hawk Down was a good example. OK, Somalia is a mess: let's help out. Ooops. We are not welcome here and they don't want our help. OK, let's go home then. Fine.
Sometimes you need to stand firm. I can't imagine us saying in 1940: OOOOOH the Axis are too strong: let's surrender. The Iraq thing is much more a case of Look the Happii and the Grumpii want to reprise the 30 Years' War. Can we stop them? Well, actually, no. Not without at least a million men and house-to-house searches. If you listen to Steyn, it's very like the old Cold War days where we MUST oppose the Soviets at every turn because otherwise they will kill us all.
Well, yeah. That WAS their game plan. 1 problem: they couldn't do it without destroying themselves and they weren't that crazy. There are other options here which may be less bloody. And it is beginning to look as if we could actually take the pressure off ourselves by letting the bloodbath happen. Realpolitik? Yeah, sure. But we cannot stop them, so let's save our powder for a struggle we can actually win. Because sometimes you need to say the following:
1. The loonies will not conquer the world.
2. All they can do is kill. Gee, that's something people will keep on signing up for, isn't it?
3. If we kick the oil dependence habit, they will be forced to Get A Life, or be consigned to perpetual mendicancy.
4. Given the choice between a triumph of the will and using our brains, please can we go with the latter?
The best WW2 general imho was Lord Slim, and we were lucky to have him. He didn't kick the Japanese out of Burma by mouthing slogans and Staying the Course and everyone who disagrees with me is an idiot! He was careful, sensible, audacious, imaginative and used every weapon he could get, which included a very talented No.2 who happened to be a nudist! You can imagine how that went down in 1942! Slim didn't care. As far as he was concerned, Orde Wingate is a priceless asset and I need him, even if he is a bit weird.
A bit more Lord Slim and a bit less Mark Steyn will see us through this crisis, I am thinking....
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment