[Buddha-l] Karma and capitalism

[curt]

Dan Lusthaus wrote:

>So it seems some are willing to concede (as 2000+ years of Buddhist history
>would compellingly and decisively indicate) that Buddhism is compatible with
>mercantilism, but for some reason, not capitalism. Unfortunately the ad hoc
>definition of capitalism they rely on for this already questionable
>distinction seems drawn more from Michael Douglas in "Wall Street" (with a
>dose of Ayn Rand) than from Adam Smith or basic capitalist theory, which
>aims at the sublimation and redirection of desire for the general good -- 
>just as Buddhism does when it promotes the marga as a desirable path, a path
>driven by the engine of desire for anuttara-samyak-sambodhi for oneself and
>others (substitute the word "wealth" for anuttara-samyak-sambodhi in that
>phrase and the isomorphism should be obvious). Compassion is a sublimated
>form of desire, but a desire nonetheless, as numerous classical Buddhist
>texts attest.
>  
>
You might want to reconsider taking up this gauntlet. The nature of 
Capitalism as a uniquely modern phenomenon that was completely 
inconceivable prior to the industrial revolution is not some kind of "ad 
hoc" theory based on "questionable distinctions". Marx and Smith (who 
agreed almost completely on matters of "pure" economics) were both quite 
clear in their belief that Capitalism was a new thing that had never 
existed before in human history - and that it was limited to those 
nations in which the industrial revolution had completely transformed 
"the means of production". India - like most of the world - has only 
experienced the pointy end of Capitalist stick - and that only as a 
result of its engulfment into the British Empire (and that, as 
previously stated, more than 10 centuries after the the spread of 
Buddhism along the Silk Road).

- Curt