How does the State fail us ?
It fails us when politicians who claim to be ensuring the safety of its citizens put them at risk of injury either from overcrowding in mental health facilities, over-medication of patients by family doctors, and overreacting to mostly harmless people who daily beat the stigma.
Take, for example, the State's handling of mental health.
Only effective forms of medication are covered by state health insurance i.e. Medicaid/Medicare.
Medications deemed old and inefficient are not covered, nor are the newest ones approved in another jurisdiction universally available.
The State does so to protect people from harm, since it knows what is best for the People.
Yet it does not go further to protect the mentally ill from stigma, citing "free speech" when Hollywood stereotypes the mentally ill as evil in the guise of violent psychotics, zombies or agents of the Devil.
Could it be that the stigma of mental illness is manufactured by society to motivate each of us to pro-actively develop mental health strategies through education and therapy.
Perhaps the State implies through its administration of Medicaid/Medicare that medication does the least harm while allowing local government to section/hospitalize mentally ill people who pose potential harm to themselves or others.
At the same time, it surely cannot protect the People from benign sociopaths who become politicians. Why can't the State protect the People from politicians? While the laws of the State are often written to remedy social problems such as mental illness, they also ensure that "the rich get richer while the poor get poorer."
In this way, doing what's best for the People profits the State through the private sector. Hopefully it also helps us to promote the mental health of the People.
While ending the stigma of the mentally ill may not be profitable to the State, it still is a basic human right for the People.
Yet the free speech observed by Hollywood producers trades a few laughs gained by parodying the mentally ill for profit.
Even if the State fails us by helping the pharmaceutical corporations profit from increased psychiatric medication sales, that should provide adequate motivation to beat the stigma of mental illness daily.
If we want to end such stigma, then it is only worth watching a movie which casts mental illness in a negative light by discussing the stereotyping that casts the shadow stigma on the characters in it.
In that way, it is possible to educate family and friends about how stereotyping the mentally ill subtly promotes the stigma.
If we want to reduce the cost of lives lost due to over-medication, then prevention could save costs.
For not everyone wants to rush forward where the extremely nervous of people fear to tread.
Original post: June 25, 2010 1154H
Previous updated: March 15, 2013 2327H
Currently revised: November 28, 2013 0447H
Showing posts with label reification. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reification. Show all posts
20130218
Laity Conflict With Dalai Lama Isn't Buddhist but Political
Those of us who have heard of the members of a subsect of Vajrayana in which its followers respond with aggression toward the Dalai Lama would wonder why they are not behaving like bodhisattvas. It is because they do not believe themselves to be bodhisattvas. This is why the Dalai Lama condemned their leader. In order not to cause controversy I will not mention the name of the subsect or their guru because I view as an internal matter and because just mentioning this is like showing disrespect for the Buddha.
However, this type of behavior is not new, nor is it limited to Mahayana. Certain Theravada schools have had monks abuse their position of power as well. However, it does not make a monk or a layperson an evil person. Rather, it shows that all sentient beings, including you and I, from non-Buddhists to Buddhists and their leaders are subject to six root delusions and twenty lesser delusions, afflictions and other spiritual maladies consistent with self grasping.
Such maladies do not go away only their own due to the six spiritual poisons (attachment (raga), anger (pratigha), ignorance (avidya), pride/conceit (māna), doubt (vicikitsa) and wrong view/false view/opinionatedness) arising from ego delusion (reification of the self i.e. as a permanent entity that is unchanging). Reification is when an object is worshiped or esteemed so highly that the object is given cult status.
Likely they arise by reification of spiritual leaders as justification for acting out of character as bodhisattvas, thus leading me to suspect that they consider themselves ordinary lay people included in the Mahayana Buddhist dedication to all sentient beings.
If this is true, then it is regretful that disciples with the humility of a layperson act in such a way. Were they to act with the humility of bodhisattvas, there would not be sectarian conflict within Buddhism.
Yet no one is immune to such behavior as all sentient beings include human beings. Although I find justification to rationalize conflict, it is beneath us to argue and fight with the Dalai Lama since that breaks the precept of respect for Buddha.
Though I am a lay person, ordinary and unable to follow one precept, let alone the Five Precepts, it saddens me to see even the Buddhadharma (Buddha's Teaching) being place secondary to what is the worldly endeavor of politics.
20100624
China and Religious Pogroms Against Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong
China pretends the Dalai Lama clique exists, to distract the world from close examinations of the cliques in Beijing, which have more substance.
Also, there are more people who aren't in the cliques than there are those in them.
Indeed, there is no Dalai Lama clique. This is an invention by the CPP to fuel their paranoid accusations of the Dalai Lama as charlatan and fraud, and more specifically as a political leader wanting more than autonomy for his people.
In actual fact, the Dalai Lama only wants autonomy (self-rule) for his people, and the good of Marxism rather than the tyranny of the state which has been reified to replace the Three Spiritual Gems of China (Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism).
By doing so, the Chinese trample on Buddhist precepts because they only respect the cult of Mao which powers the State and its myriad cliques.
Their poltical repression of Falun Gong too is due to the cult of Mao.
Why? Because they fear Buddhism and Falun Gong will distract people from reverence for Mao.
Yet Buddhism and Falun Gong both preach service to others, and so are not China's enemies. CPP made them their enemies because reverence to Mao shows respect to the reified State.
Even though the CPP claims Buddhism and Falun Gong are superstitions which must be trampled, the cult of Mao too is a superstition. Reverence for Mao will not make China strong; what makes China strong is people inculcated with the willingness to be of service to the State.
Both Buddhism and Falun Gong preach this, and disproves that members of both religions are a threat to the security of the state.
Thus in trampling on the spiritual goodness of Buddhism and Falun Gong, CPP is showing religious hypocrisy. In claiming Chinese should be atheistic and should replace the "superstition" of Buddhism and Falun Gong with the cult of Mao, CPP only shows how ignorant its clique truly are.
Indeed, neither religion is an enemy of China; China's true enemy is reification of the State.
This is why the cliques ruling Beijing are living in interesting times. Each one claim to be true to Mao's word, yet are each in it for their own gain.
People there still practice Buddhism and Falun Gong without thought of revolt, for both religions encourage their devotees to be of service to others.
Thus the powers that be in Beijing have more to fear from their cliques than from the people. Their pogroms again Falun Gong and Tibetan Buddhists are merely distractions to confuse the world and China's people.
Yet not all people in China listen to the state on this matter. Only the people who believe in the state are afraid of Buddhism and Falun Gong. Everyone else carries on as they were, being of service to China.
No one cares if one lights joss sticks, studies Lao Tse or follows the Analects. All they care about is to help China be prosperous and strong.
Yet all China is doing by trampling on Buddhism and Falun Gong is make the State look stupid.
Therefore China should stop reifying the state, and instead accept the help of its own people, not distinguishing between Buddhist or Confucist or Taoist or Falun Gong or Maoist.
For even Mao demands that of its leadership.
Also, there are more people who aren't in the cliques than there are those in them.
Indeed, there is no Dalai Lama clique. This is an invention by the CPP to fuel their paranoid accusations of the Dalai Lama as charlatan and fraud, and more specifically as a political leader wanting more than autonomy for his people.
In actual fact, the Dalai Lama only wants autonomy (self-rule) for his people, and the good of Marxism rather than the tyranny of the state which has been reified to replace the Three Spiritual Gems of China (Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism).
By doing so, the Chinese trample on Buddhist precepts because they only respect the cult of Mao which powers the State and its myriad cliques.
Their poltical repression of Falun Gong too is due to the cult of Mao.
Why? Because they fear Buddhism and Falun Gong will distract people from reverence for Mao.
Yet Buddhism and Falun Gong both preach service to others, and so are not China's enemies. CPP made them their enemies because reverence to Mao shows respect to the reified State.
Even though the CPP claims Buddhism and Falun Gong are superstitions which must be trampled, the cult of Mao too is a superstition. Reverence for Mao will not make China strong; what makes China strong is people inculcated with the willingness to be of service to the State.
Both Buddhism and Falun Gong preach this, and disproves that members of both religions are a threat to the security of the state.
Thus in trampling on the spiritual goodness of Buddhism and Falun Gong, CPP is showing religious hypocrisy. In claiming Chinese should be atheistic and should replace the "superstition" of Buddhism and Falun Gong with the cult of Mao, CPP only shows how ignorant its clique truly are.
Indeed, neither religion is an enemy of China; China's true enemy is reification of the State.
This is why the cliques ruling Beijing are living in interesting times. Each one claim to be true to Mao's word, yet are each in it for their own gain.
People there still practice Buddhism and Falun Gong without thought of revolt, for both religions encourage their devotees to be of service to others.
Thus the powers that be in Beijing have more to fear from their cliques than from the people. Their pogroms again Falun Gong and Tibetan Buddhists are merely distractions to confuse the world and China's people.
Yet not all people in China listen to the state on this matter. Only the people who believe in the state are afraid of Buddhism and Falun Gong. Everyone else carries on as they were, being of service to China.
No one cares if one lights joss sticks, studies Lao Tse or follows the Analects. All they care about is to help China be prosperous and strong.
Yet all China is doing by trampling on Buddhism and Falun Gong is make the State look stupid.
Therefore China should stop reifying the state, and instead accept the help of its own people, not distinguishing between Buddhist or Confucist or Taoist or Falun Gong or Maoist.
For even Mao demands that of its leadership.
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