So I was just looking at an article about the elections in India, and it seems that the Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, is only one shaky coalition government away from gaining power in India.
In Pakistan, the Taliban are only an hours drive from the capital.
For those who don't pay attention to the news, both of those countries have nuclear weapons and have been either on the verge of or actually involved in outright hostilities over the Kashmir.
So if the fundamentalists gain power in those nuclear mutually hostile countries I wonder how that will work out for them?
I'm certainly grateful that the news isn't so boring anymore...
Oh, funny thing, in the Ramayana, one of the great national epics of India, the hero Rama defeats an army of demons with an army of monkeys.
I can picture an Indian astronaut propelled into the future to find a planet ruled by intelligent apes who worship Hanuman, and then he comes across the radioactive ruins of the Taj Mahal. Then a mutant named Ravana grabs his girlfriend...
Well anyway, I'm just being silly. There is no way that fundamentalists or other irrational idealogues would ever gain control of a whole country. Revolutionary Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia, Mao's China, North Korea, and so on were/are just flukes. It couldn't possibly happen now. Not with the UN and the USA in Afghanistant and rocketing Taliban and Al Qaida leaders in Pakistan (say, that's what we did in Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge took over - oh never mind). Anyway, those people are rational enough that they would not use nuclear weapons to commit an act of genocide. Who would do something like that?
Well anyway, I'll be interested to see how that all works out for them.
Before that happened, it's probable that the highest and most secret levels of the international intelligence community will elect to exterminate those renegade populations with biological weapons - that includes the innocent and the guilty. And remember, in the Gita, something suspiciously like nuclear weapons were used. Perhaps mythology is repeating itself, yet again.
Charles
Posted by: Charles at May 13, 2009 06:29 PMCharles/Ryuei,
We also shouldn't forget too soon:
"...now I am become Death [Shiva], the destroyer of worlds..."
-Robert Oppenheimer
Seed pods.
Posted by: joe at May 15, 2009 10:13 PMWork out for THEM? You're kidding, right?
Posted by: Vanya at May 17, 2009 10:36 AMI'm more worried about my own country than Pakhistan. It's the Pashtun who are so close to the Capital. And they've only become as powerful as they are because of the botched strategies of the United States, which gave entirely too much credibility to the Taliban and confused Punjabis into thinking that the Taliban were a US problem and not their own.
The Punjabis can't conquer Pashtun territory because the Pashtun are tough guys who won't let them. But they can be mobilized to defend themselves. The average Punjabi (and many Pashtun as well) don't particularly like being forced to follow Talliban ideas anymore than most of us want the Catholics dictating our religious beliefs.
If we had handled this Bin laden thing as a Police, Social Work, education issue, they'd have figured this out for themselves a long time ago.
These people aren't all that different from us.
Chris
Posted by: Chris at May 18, 2009 07:45 AMHi everyone,
Yes, Vanya, I was being sarcastic.
I am very pleased to see that the BJP lost in the elections this weekend. I congratulate the people of India for not handing their country over to fundamentalist wackos and thereby staving off a regional nuclear war for a little while longer.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Both sides were never serious about Nuclear War. If they'd fallen into one it would have been out of stupidity and miscalculation not intentionality. The Pakistanis needed an imaginary theoretical enemy to justify military spending and corruption -- and so did the BGP. Both sides were doing business with the same arms venders in the hope that ordinary folks wouldn't notice their kleptocracy. The Militaries never wanted a real actual war.
Now that Pakistan has a more or less real enemy Hindu Punjabis and Pakistani Punjabis are finally realizing how stupid and self destructive all that all that brinksmanship and flame fanning was. They built Armies fine for show and tell, but pretty lousy at dealing with insurgents, restoring order or building a lasting peace.
It's easier to attack Sikhs, blame Moslems (or Hindus), and build Nukes than to tackle poverty, build homes for the homeless, or address the needs of Dalits and other poor folks. Now they have some incentive to try to do something for the majority of both countries.
I hope they work it out for themselves.
In the same spirit, I pray for the Nepalese people and the Sri Lankan people to craft a society of lasting value and peace.
namaste
Posted by: cl at May 18, 2009 04:44 PMDear Chris;
You write:
'It's easier to attack Sikhs, blame Moslems (or Hindus), and build Nukes than to tackle poverty, build homes for the homeless, or address the needs of Dalits and other poor folks. Now they have some incentive to try to do something for the majority of both countries."
The problems are the powerless religions of the people.
Mark
Posted by: Mark Rogow at May 18, 2009 07:35 PM