Another video gone

Re: Soka Gakkai International -- SGI

Posted by: Hitch ()

Date: April 07, 2012 02:40AM

Quote

Yzak

One time, when I was organizing a SGI club in my college, I meet this Japanese girl who is a "Fortune Baby" (being born and raised in this Buddhism) to talk about how to organize the club. I suggested for the final meeting we were going to have, that we should discuss about how this Buddhism thinks about problems in society in general. Example: Poverty, Violence, Race, Sexuality, Abortion, Discrimination, Abuse, Justice, etc, and how SGI Buddhism think they will address these issues for the betterment of the world. She went like, NO WAY, THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT! WE ARE HERE TO SHOW THIS BUDDHISM, TO DO SHAKUBUKU AND TO SUPPORT SGI, WHO CARES ABOUT THOSE THINGS, OR DETAILS!!! 

That really shocked me, because how do they plan to make world peace without a solid philosophical argument that could say how to make the world better. But it seemed to me that they don't care or don't even bother to think about it, like contributing to SGI itself is enough for world peace.

So-called fortune babies fall into three camps, as they go thru the sequence of growing up: 

1) The hopelessly ignorant and brainwashed. 

2) The "just going along with it, so as to not create any waves" kind. 

3) The ones that have had enough and get out. 

Some only go thru two steps, like 2 --> 3 or 2 --> 1, etc.. Some are perpetually stuck in one category (either 1 or 2). I had the (mis)fortune of going thru all 3, in sequence. 

The one described above, by Yzak, falls into category 1. Here's another in the same camp (I've posted about her before here, just because she appears to be the only one dumb enough to go on YouTube about it) [www.youtube.com]. (Hang onto your lunch, if you can, as she humbly describes being a "fortune baby" and her huge benefit of overcoming eustachian tube dysfunction and getting her first job out of college. Quintessential confirmation bias experiences.) 

Those kids in the sgi-usa-media clip are destined for the same. Having walked in their shoes, I really feel for them. I agree, this kind of stuff should be outlawed.