Connecticut Shooting

[Warren]

I don't belive in any of that

 

 

 

Whether something is ultimately good or not we cannot always be sure...killing someone in the name of religion may ultimately prove to be agood thing if it's for the greater good. For all we know being an suicide bomber killing westerners may earn that bomber a place in paradise

 

I don't know how you can be certain that something motivated by faith that dioes harm isn't ultinately a good thing

 

 

 

 

Which groups have an adverse impact on the general population? For example the overwhelming majority of people in this country are not adversely affected by shootings, terrorism etc done in the name of religion. Even in places like Israel the majority are not directly adversely affected.

 

 

 

I guess so

 

 

 

Is it working? And not all will agree that he is following the middle path..Buddhists might but we're not all Buddhists

 

 

 

I take it that bit wasn't aimed at me?

 

Indeed my comment on abortion is not directed at you. You are always welcome to disagree with me since you take the trouble to put forward reasoned arguments.

 

A good book on the value of compassion which I read this year is 'How to be Compassionate: A Handbook for Creating Inner Peace and a Happier World'.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1846042968/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=000712287X&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=10M22BG64NE4A1EP7SA0

 

A good piece of advertising by the Dalai Lama.

[Andyregs]

****** hell, in the red corner we have warren and his bulldog Buddhist politics, and in the blue corner, johnyH with his postmodernism fluff! The worlds gone mad!

[Andyregs]

Indeed my comment on abortion is not directed at you. You are always welcome to disagree with me since you take the trouble to put forward reasoned arguments.

 

A good book on the value of compassion which I read this year is 'How to be Compassionate: A Handbook for Creating Inner Peace and a Happier World'.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1846042968/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=000712287X&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=10M22BG64NE4A1EP7SA0

 

A good piece of advertising by the Dalai Lama.

 

So let me get this right. I need to read a book written by a guy who wants to return to Tibet to be a religious dictator over a feudal society, while he sits in his palace unopposed and unelected, in order to learn compassion? But hey, it's ok as long as he cuts a few hippy sound bites for people who want to be religious, but feel either too hipster or pseudo intellectual to follow one of the big religions. It's the liberal democrats of religion (until they finally sold their souls).

[JOHNNYAITCH]

****** hell, in the red corner we have warren and his bulldog Buddhist politics, and in the blue corner, johnyH with his postmodernism fluff! The worlds gone mad!

 

Hadn't realised that I had some postmodernist views but having researched it a bit..maybe I do

 

Although they are definitely not fluff

[Warren]

So let me get this right. I need to read a book written by a guy who wants to return to Tibet to be a religious dictator over a feudal society, while he sits in his palace unopposed and unelected, in order to learn compassion? But hey, it's ok as long as he cuts a few hippy sound bites for people who want to be religious, but feel either too hipster or pseudo intellectual to follow one of the big religions. It's the liberal democrats of religion (until they finally sold their souls).

 

 

Answering your call for help to get this right. The Chinese Government, at the time led by Chairman Mao, almost certainly the worst despot of all time, occupied Tibet in the 1950's and subverted the Tibetan population. There was an unsucessful uprising not sanctioned by the Dalai Lama who was seeking peaceful reconsiliation and had met Chairman Mao. In order to avoid murder and to continue to speak up for his population the Dalai Lama left Tibet one night and fled to India and is now based in Dharamshala. Since the 1950's the Chinese have continued to subvert Tibet and practice discrimination against Tibetan people in every walk of life. They are repopulating Tibet with Chinese indiginous people so that Tibetans are outnumbered and forced out of all significant roles and jobs in their own country.

 

The Dalai Lama is recognised around the world as a man of peace and he has continued to pursue the middle path and a peaceful path in trying to bring the Chinese Government to negotiate about Tibet. In July 2011 and February 2010 he met President Obama at the Whitehouse. He continues to hold views that Tibet should be an independent country from China and this is of course a block to resolution of issues with China. It is similar to Palastine wanting to be an independent country from Israel, but one notces quite some difference in approach to achieving this.

 

As for elections, well Tibet is a very isolated place and the capital Lhasa is reached by the highest train line in the world. That was the nature of the country until the 1950's and similar to Nepal. In wishing for democracy one should recognise that the UK has only had a proper democracy since the the Reform Act of 1832 and the Ballot Act of 1872. I would expect it to follow a similar path in future if independence is achieved and allowing for it being a less advanced society. Obviously there is no democracy there presently but plenty of persecution.

 

There is of course a common but unfounded perception that the Dalai Lama is the leader of Buddhism worldwide. Although influential that is not the case, he is simply a high profile figure and that is because of his teachings and writings which are widely respected. As enlightenment is unbounded compassion for others there is nothing to be opposed to with the Dalai Lama. You seem to miss the whole point, which is that even if say a buddhist monk was imprisoned by the Chinese and being tortured the response would be compassion towards the torturer since it is the torturer that is really suffering.

 

Of course I should not get attached to rebuttal too much and this is my last comment here since we have gone off the subject anyway. Back to guns I guess.

[Warren]

Hadn't realised that I had some postmodernist views but having researched it a bit..maybe I do

 

Although they are definitely not fluff

 

Interesting.

 

Postmodernism is a general and wide-ranging term which is applied to many disciplines, including literature, art, economics, philosophy, architecture, fiction, and literary criticism. Postmodernism is largely a reaction to scientific or objective efforts to explain reality. Postmodernism tends to be defined either as the period after modernism or as a 'condition' whereby established values are rapidly eroded by new technological advances and a general apprehension of what the future will bring. In essence, postmodernism is based on the position that reality is not mirrored in human understanding of it, but is rather constructed as the mind tries to understand its own personal reality. Postmodernism is therefore skeptical of explanations that claim to be valid for all groups, cultures, traditions, or races, and instead focuses on the relative truths of each person or within each paradigm, therefore having a relativistic view on reality. In the postmodern understanding, interpretation is everything; reality only comes into being through our interpretations of what the world means to us individually. Postmodernism relies on concrete experience over abstract principles, arguing that the outcome of one's own experience will necessarily be fallible and relative, rather than certain or universal.

 

Postmodernism postulates that many, if not all, apparent realities are only social constructs and are therefore subject to change. It claims that there is no absolute truth and that the way people perceive the world is subjective and emphasises the role of language, power relations, and motivations in the formation of ideas and beliefs. In particular, it attacks the use of sharp binary classifications such as male versus female, straight versus gay, white versus black, and imperial versus colonial; it holds realities to be plural and relative, and to be dependent on who the interested parties are and what the nature of these interests are. Postmodernist approaches therefore often consider the ways in which social dynamics, such as power and hierarchy, affect human conceptualizations of the world to have important effects on the way knowledge is constructed and used. Postmodernist thought often emphasizes constructivism, idealism, pluralism, relativism, and scepticism in its approaches to knowledge and understanding.

[JOHNNYAITCH]

I looked it up on t'internet too

[Trampilot]

From killing kids with machine guns to postmodernist discussion and neo-political Buddism. Awesome.

[For Us All]

The National Rifle Association's solution to this problem is to have armed guards in every school?

The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to have a good guy with a gun?

There's no hope.

[JOHNNYAITCH]

Just saw a speech on that on TV...remarkable logic

 

But that's ther attitude that has to be addressed if gun ownership etc is to be dramatically reduced.."I have to have the ability to protect myself from those that would do me harm. Why do you want to take away my ability to protect myself from the armed bad guys?""

[Paul6754]

The National Rifle Association's solution to this problem is to have armed guards in every school?

The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to have a good guy with a gun?

There's no hope.

 

The NRA view is not even that, it is to have teachers armed (after undergoing training). Their view is anyone who has been trained should have the right to carry a gun where ever they want to, so nurses in hospitals, teachers in schools & kindergarten, anyone in a restaurant, a sports stadium etc....the leadership of the NRA are simply puddled and there are politicians who subscribe to this view

 

There are 4 million people in the NRA in the USA and they yield a totally disproportionate amout of power and influence in Washington, even though the majority of their members want changes to the gun laws. The Connecticut shootings just may be the tipping point to start the erosion of their power.

[Paul6754]

The NRA's definition of a gun in the above context isn't a single shoot pistol but a machine gun, they consider the firepower should be matched by the same or greater firepower. A leader from the NRA on tv last night said what should have happened in the school was for a teacher to have engaged the shooter with an AR 15 machine gun. When it was pointed out that there were many kids around and the shooter was wearing full body armour he just shrugged his shoulders. When it was pointed out that in a recent incident where two gun trained police officers tackled a gunman on the top of the Empire State building, eight innocent bystanders were shot, this only produced the same reaction from the NRA person, incredulous.

[bookworm]

As i posted earlier, innocent bystanders//school children are no more that colateral damage to the gun lobby.

[Warren]

The National Rifle Association's solution to this problem is to have armed guards in every school?

The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to have a good guy with a gun?

There's no hope.

 

That is exactly the solution implemented on planes in the USA and Switzerland for example. So implementing it in schools is a strong possibility. Given the inability to implement a gun removal policy in the population this in fact seems the best solution. I can't believe I have reached this conclusion!

[For Us All]

Just saw a speech on that on TV...remarkable logic

 

But that's ther attitude that has to be addressed if gun ownership etc is to be dramatically reduced.."I have to have the ability to protect myself from those that would do me harm. Why do you want to take away my ability to protect myself from the armed bad guys?""

 

It's got to be the culture of cowboys and indians.:rolleyes: