Dilly Dalai

“STILL I AM A MARXIST,” says the Dalai Lama, conceding that capitalism has done China some good: “Millions of people’s living standards improved.” Marxism remains dear to him because it has “moral ethics, whereas capitalism is only how to make profits.” Only. Only improving the lives of millions.

And what fine moral ethics those are, Dalai!

Lenin: "In our opinion, morality is entirely subordinate to the interests of the class war. Everything is moral which is necessary for the annihilation of the old exploiting order and for uniting the proletariat."

That was, of course, the prescription for the endless Terror that ensued, and that is part and parcel of applied Marxism, everywhere and always. The historical debate is whether the 20th century toll of Communist dead is closer to 100 million or 150 million. The imprecision is mostly because the total number for China will never be determined, but it's no less than 60 million.

As it is, the Dalai Lama and his entourage sit in exile in Dharamsala, India. He fled Tibet in 1959, when the Marxist government of China invaded Tibet, destroyed as much of its cultural heritage as possible (temples, shrines, monks' caves, etc.), gutted Lhasa, and brought in large numbers of Han Chinese settlers to dilute Tibetan ethnicity. Marxist "moral ethics" in action.

If nothing else, The Buddha was a very deep thinker. Comparing him with his current Tibetan representative, it appears that the fig fell a long way from Bodhi tree, and rolled far downhill.

Byron