Marxism

Marx's ideas about about society make sense to me. However I think his idea of religion is over simplified. I simply do not believe that all religion is a tool for serving the elite at the detriment of the masses, and I do not believe that all religion is bad. How does Theravada Buddhism support the power structure of the elite? It does teach people to be moral, I guess you could see that as "enslavement to the system" if you really wanted to. Then there is Daoism, how does Daoism subjugate people to the power-elite. The most popular Daoist text says that the less government there is the better the people are. It is not too difficult to imagine anarchistic forms of Christianity because either, because in the Gospels Jesus tells people they should leave their jobs, families, and everything to follow him. However I don't know that any such form of Christianity still exits. Forms of Shivism encourage people to withdraw from the world.

A Brave New World?

I was really pleased with our last class session. A variety of ideas were kicked around by a number of people. I've never before given much thought to the role of technology in the future of spirituality, but it does raise some fascinating possibilities. Perhaps direct electronic manipulation of the brain, in conjunction with a religious setting, could make us all into mystics and spiritual geniuses. Perhaps a weekly dosage of such experience would reshape our reality for the better, and we would all live better lives. I am skeptical about this though. I suspect that any spiritual experience will be fleeting if it is not grounded in spiritual living. You can only rape the angels so many times.

In the south American cultures where drug use in conjunction with religion is the rule instead of the exception, the drug is always taken in a religious setting and the experience is supervised by a religious specialist. As I understand it many of the participants in the cultural revolution of the 1960s advocated the casual use of psychotropes and marijuana. It seems their results were mixed. At least their legacy is mixed. However, with new mind altering technologies it might be possible that a positive reciprocal cycle could be established. A technology could catalyze an experience that in turn might cause the individual to live a better life, which would in turn make such positive experiences more likely in the future. It is an interesting idea for sure.