Dalai Lama: I’m totally a Marxist
posted at 8:07 pm on May 21, 2010 by Allahpundit
So he’s the Marxist, and … the ChiComs are increasingly capitalist. Dude — we’ve been backing the wrong horse.
Actually, his view of capitalism seems pretty sympatico with Beijing’s:
“Still I am a Marxist,” the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader said in New York, where he arrived today with an entourage of robed monks and a heavy security detail to give a series of paid public lectures.
“(Marxism has) moral ethics, whereas capitalism is only how to make profits,” the Dalai Lama, 74, said.
However, he credited China’s embrace of market economics for breaking communism’s grip over the world’s most populous country and forcing the ruling Communist Party to “represent all sorts of classes”.
“(Capitalism) brought a lot of positive to China. Millions of people’s living standards improved,” he said.
Marxism is ethical but capitalism puts food on the table; that does seem to be the conclusion that the Chinese leadership has drawn. Leaving aside the very special brand of “ethics” for which Marxist societies are known, isn’t there an ethical component to the fact that capitalism does raise living standards? I know he’s an officially recognized international Wise Man or whatever, but his reasoning sounds like a conservative parody of the left: Sure, free markets make people better off, but communism has better intentions. Does the behavior of the Chinese and Soviets in his own backyard suggest nothing to him about Marxist ethics in theory versus in practice? Or should we not be surprised that a religious man has a religious faith in the idea that Marxism can be moral in practice if we just “get it right”?
I forget who, but someone on Twitter joked this morning that if only The One had known this sooner he would have treated him better during that White House visit. Exit question: Who’s the wiser international Wise Man, the DL or Michael Caine?
Blowback
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The fact that capitalism is not moral, but marxism is, actually speaks against marxism. Because there is no moral weight in capitalism, the fact that someone does not seek comparative advantage, does not seek to fullfill self interest, does not invest, all of those do not speak ill of the person. There is no moral reason to compell people to act as a capitalist. In fact, in capitalist societies, people who are not self interested are lauded as humanitarians, philanthropists, and saints.
Compare that with marxism, where the state now has a moral duty to force everyone to toe the same economic line. In marxism, morality suddenly becomes the justification for the worst human rights abuses in the history of man.
So give me the amoral economic system over the moral economic system any day.
JSchuler on May 22, 2010 at 12:47 AM
The constant failure of socialism around the world is one of the strong proofs that mankind is not basically good.
Grafted on May 22, 2010 at 1:09 AM
You get a bowl of soup with that hat?
greggriffith on May 22, 2010 at 1:31 AM
God save us from godless morality.
somewhatconcerned on May 22, 2010 at 1:37 AM
What an idiot!
I’m glad the Maobama régime showed this loser out the back door by the trash cans at the White House!
If he’s a Marxist, what’s his problem with the ChiComs taking over Tibet?
That they’re too Capitalist?!
Jenfidel on May 22, 2010 at 1:41 AM
Capitalism is ethical because capitalism is freedom.
Marxism is about forced control of the many by the powerful few.
The only people who believe capitalism is unethical are people who think the masses can’t cope with freedom.
12thMonkey on May 22, 2010 at 1:44 AM
This guy is now officially a proven fraud. He never sought freedom for his people. He just wanted control like any other progressive fool.
Just because he said that I can’t wait for the tanks to roll into Tibet
Chrisin206 on May 22, 2010 at 3:08 AM
He lost me. Used t’ think well of him. He’s just another Commie.
Pity…
Army Brat on May 22, 2010 at 3:32 AM
Maxism: Over 100 million deaths in the last century alone.
Sheer madness
Bevan on May 22, 2010 at 5:39 AM
It’s called Objectivism – Capitalism (Austrian School) is it’s economic doctrine. Rational egoism is it’s moral ethics.
Not that I would expect the Dalai Lama to know that… I mean, it takes a particular kind of unelected despot who believes himself to be God to think he can be a Marxist.
ebrawer on May 22, 2010 at 5:50 AM
Moral ethics?? God, this is just ridiculous. Look at what the ChiComs did to Nepal!
Terrye on May 22, 2010 at 6:58 AM
I used to respect the guy — that’s over. He obviously can’t read, doesn’t know a damn thing about history, and only laments that he isn’t a part of the thug ruling class he rails against. Make him the head of one of your oppressive, human-rights-violating ministries, ChiComs, and you’ll have solved your dalai lama problem. The guy just wants his own big stick to beat the peasants over the head with. A more typical leftist you could not find.
Rational Thought on May 22, 2010 at 8:08 AM
The unspoken issue here is God. If man is foolish enough to deny God exists (Budhism is an athiest religion) he concludes by giving himself the role and all power and responsibility.
shick on May 22, 2010 at 8:28 AM
Well… dang! If he’d have spoken up a few months earlier, he may have gotten to leave by the front door of the White House!
SnowSun on May 22, 2010 at 8:52 AM
Sad. I never liked him. As soon as Hollywood was all over him I figured he was a squid.
BrideOfRove on May 22, 2010 at 9:04 AM
ROFL!
Too funny!
Or he probably would get a state dinner, too, especially if he gave a big speech extolling Marxism as implemented by Maobama in America.
Jenfidel on May 22, 2010 at 9:20 AM
Hey, if he’s happy being thrown out the back with the rest of the trash, who are we to argue?
MNHawk on May 22, 2010 at 10:10 AM
Have to give this one a bit of thought before drawing a definitive opinion.
MSGTAS on May 22, 2010 at 10:23 AM
Obama to Lama: Oh I never knew…
That you like pina coladas
and getting caught in the rain…
Mojave Mark on May 22, 2010 at 10:25 AM
You can’t be right about everything. It’s not his core area of expertise. It’s like when Obama talks about, ummm, well, when he talks about everything!
Pablo Snooze on May 22, 2010 at 10:33 AM
Dalai Lama drank the Kool-Aid.
Philly on May 22, 2010 at 10:45 AM
Michael Caine is my new favorite actor.
Disturb the Universe on May 22, 2010 at 10:52 AM
Dumb as a stump. So if he’s a marxist, and doesn’t care about worldly matters, what the hell does he care who runs tibet? I give occassionally to free tibet but I’m not gonna be a sucker anymore.
peacenprosperity on May 22, 2010 at 11:15 AM
Now THAT’S funny. I don’t think he would like it at all. He might say, you can’t do that, there are consquences to actions which are deserved, and you shouldn’t be changing those consequences, because you’re tinkering with morality, and you shouldn’t do that, you don’t know what you’re doing. And I’d say, as far as your embrace of Marxism goes, look in the mirror.
Paul-Cincy on May 22, 2010 at 11:38 AM
Yeah
but on my deathbed
I will receive total consciousness
I got that going for me
Sonosam on May 22, 2010 at 1:38 PM
That’s the point Mr. Lama: Capitalism is an economic theory claiming to be an economic theory, Marxism is a social theory claiming to be an economic theory.
This is why Marxist economies have always failed (and social morality with them), while Capitalistic countries have been able to implement social codes that flourish under economic prosperity.
BKennedy on May 22, 2010 at 1:47 PM
A marixist? That’s a hoot. His brother and his family have large real estate holdings in Bloomington Indiana. they also own numerous restaurants and his nephew (who incidentally is in the real estate business) has been involved in organizing many of the Tibetan money making events at the Tibetan cultural center. Simply google the Norbu family in Bloomington Indiana and you can get a sense how much the family believes in Marxism. What a joke.
The DL shows up at special events in which Steven Segal and other Hollywood types pay a great deal of money to attend ……For years there
have been rumors that money raised for Tibet and the cultural center have been siphoned off . The only thing red about this guy and his family are their robes.
R Square on May 22, 2010 at 2:29 PM
I’m not a Buddhist, but I’m surprised and disappointed by this. I can only conclude that he really doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and doesn’t have a real deep understanding about what Marxism is.
dkmonroe on May 22, 2010 at 3:18 PM
I would recommend to the Dalai Lama that he takes a look at the most successful Capitalists charitable contributions.
free on May 22, 2010 at 4:07 PM
If “wise man” includes liking little boys.
Squiggy on May 22, 2010 at 4:36 PM
I’ve never recognized the dali lama as being anyone particularly intelligent, much less anything special in wisdom. He’s just a man, and it’s time people wake up to that fact. He’s a relic of a pagan philosophy that makes no impression on me, and no more of an influence in my life than some fat, old man that calls himself a “pope”, and thinks I should bow down to him and kiss his ring. I’d just as soon be friends with the Ayatollah of Iran or the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. There’s nothing “holy” there, there’s nothing “wise” there.
His endorsement of Marxist economics and socialism/communism says a lot about his so-called ‘wisdom’. There is no ethical structure in Marxism, whatsoever, just as it’s creator, Karl Marx, was an unethical, immoral man. Capitalism, on the other hand, when properly done, allows the consumers to vote with their pocketbooks. Companies and corporations of which they disapprove commonly find themselves on the losing end of the bottom line, and can rightly go out of business. Capitalism is not about attempting to force you into a social mold or into a captive audience, unlike the hideous bastard child of Marx. Capitalism is about the consumer taking control of his acquisitions, and the producers taking control of their own companies and muscling others out of the marketplace by providing better goods and services to those consumers. Marxism is sheerly about the captive audience of government domination of the marketplace, including the producers and the consumers. The Marxist government tells the producers what they can produce, and how much, and tells the consumer what they can by, and how much of that they can possess or utilize.
Also, let’s not forget the hundreds of millions of people that Capitalism has not imprisoned and murdered.
Apparently, the latest person calling himself the dali lama isn’t intelligent enough to grasp these basic concepts of economics and government, he’s not even as intelligent as I thought he was (which was just about average).
Virus-X on May 22, 2010 at 5:13 PM
Sorry: “Dalai” Lama.
Virus-X on May 22, 2010 at 5:14 PM
Of course he’s a Marxist, the man’s a parasite – he’s never worked a day in his life and he was “selected” by elites to be a “leader…” and he’s spent his whole adult life surrounded by fawning celebrities and elites.
When the Chinese took over, a more brutal tyrant replaced a less brutal one – but it’s easy to forget that they were both autocrats and the people were not free before or after.
Merovign on May 22, 2010 at 6:08 PM
I’m sorry; at first, I thought you were talking about Obama.
Virus-X on May 22, 2010 at 8:51 PM
Good folks @HA,
Relax – this man has spent his entire adult life in exile in India which was pretty socialist. Nehru, India’s first PM who gave him asylum when the Chinese were ready to have his head, was a socialist himself. I am not at all surprised at his comments.
Very few people in India know about the evils of Marxism or the millions of lives it slaughtered – the Dalai Lama is one of them.
Go easy on this old man – he has zero experience with the real world (he is a monk !!!).
nagee76 on May 23, 2010 at 9:31 AM
Religion is so weird.
ronsfi on May 23, 2010 at 6:15 PM
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