I don't know ... You are writting about horrible things. This things were done by very concrete people. You seem to take fo granted that these people could at that time behave better, but maybe they could behave much worse and the sad truth is that at that time with that people it was ecactly the best possible what they could do.Modus.Ponens wrote:
Tradition? Which one? The one that sacrifices animals to gods? The one that sacrifices human beings to gods? The one that stones people to death because they were raped? The one that puts men in arenas fighting with lions for the amusement of the crowd? The one that makes prepubescent boys to jump off a giant tower, severely injuring themselves, to prove their manhood? The one that burned "wiches"? I'm confused. Please clarify which of these traditions demonstrate the equilibrium in society that is the best possible.
You are right, there have been terrible revolutionaries. There was Ghadni, who stopped hundreds of years of british collonialism, after what India has broken and suffer from wars and religious heatred. Not to mention just openly immoral comunist, Nelson Mandela, who ordered bomb atack on Church Street in Pretoria where died 19 people and more than 200 were wounded. You must be very unitelligent to insist that horrible things which now are happening in South Africa are better state of affairs then before tradition of Apertheid.Modus.Ponens wrote:
By the way, there have been terrible revolutionaries. There was Ghadni, who stopped hundreds of years of british collonialism through the sheer power of unflexible non-violence. There was Nelson Mandela who fought the wonderful tradition of Apertheid. And there was a man _ please guess who it was _ that was against the chaste system, who didn't use slaves, who created a monastic order for women, who dismissed the traditional brahmanism and who taught that true peace, freedom and happiness comes, not from aquisition, but through inner cultivation.
About Buddha you are mistaken - but maybe I am wrong. I am ready to change my mind - only please qoute just one Sutta where Lord Buddha speaks against the chaste system and tries to change social structure, otherwise than to give oprtunity for everyone to left home which in fact was a part of that time social structure.
But why not to abadon your doubts about tradition just simply by saddha and say to yourself, well :as long the Vajjis do not decree anything that has not been decreed or abolish anything that has already been decreed but undertake and follow the ancient Vajji principles as they have been decreed, only growth is to be expected for them, not decline. it was said by the Lord Buddha. I do not understand how these words could be true, but since they are the words of the Lord Buddha, they must be true, so I have to abandon my deluded ideas of rapid social progress and stick to tradition, where family has one mother - women, one father - man and children ...