The buddha in the world today - SOF review

I will try to be careful in my review of Speaking of Faith's issue with the Indian journalist Pankaj Mishra under the title The Buddha in the World (transcript) Much is said that can be taken in very many directions and so let me start out by saying this is an absolute must listen. In addition to the regular program, one can also tap into the unedited interview with Pankaj Mishra.

The figure of the Buddha, Mishra reveals, was actually unknown to him, a Hindu from India. Even though the Buddha is revered among Hindus as well and the story is known, the message is sort of pushed aside. Buddha is sort of co opted into Hinduism as a reincarnation of Vishnu. But when in his later years Mishra dug into the history and the teachings of the Buddha, it became a journey of great learning for him. In his conversation with Krista Tippett, he relates the insights he has gained and how he applies them into a deeper understanding of the world today.

Mishra is very critical of capitalism, the optimism about progress, technology, open market and democracy. He characterizes the idea that progress, technology and democracy will make for some kind of ideal society as rather naive (in my words). Riches, assuming it is riches that this will bring and what is aimed for, but we are talking a capitalist ideal, has its limits and eventually gives some protection only to minor inconveniences and dangers in life. Real suffering remains. This also implies a warning against wrong methods to reach that goal of democracy and open market. As if good results (if good at all) make good for violent means. The Buddha's emphasis to live in the present means for Mishra a very practical lesson to be careful with grand assumptions, bad methods (even to good ends) and begs for an understanding of other cultural traditions and perspectives.

Enough. I will never do justice to Mishra's words and thoughts this way. One must listen in order to not just hear more accurately what I have penned down so bluntly, but also to feel Mishra's pleasant voice and modest style of expression. It is a wonderful experience.

More Speaking of Faith:
Doubt,
Listening Generously - Rachel Remen, (recommended)
The Sunni-Shia Divide and the future of Islam,
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Karen Armstrong.

Anne is a Man in the weekend of March 6

Here is a list of reviews I am planning to publish over the weekend (Friday - Sunday).

-Speaking of Faith. I haven't listened to SOF very regularly lately, but just now I was taken by an issue about depression. Once on the roll, I took another one and found it even better: About the Buddha in the world today

-The Dutch podcast by the VPRO Marathon Interview allowed me to make comparisons with the disappeared interview podcast by the RVU Simek 's Nachts. Arthur Japin and Johannes van Dam have also been interviewed by Simek. Marathon Interview gave me a second look at them. This time around for three hours in stead of one. (Dutch)

-TVO's Big Ideas has the occasional lecture I want to pick up. This time I chose one by Best Lecture Finalist Anton Allahar who observes the question Why isn't the whole world developed? from a variety of angles, evaluating each briefly and critically.

-In Shrink Rap Radio, the psychology interview program, Dr. David van Nuys spoke a long time ago with Gary Small about the effect modern technology has on the brain.

- On Media Matters Bob McChesney had an interview with Juan Cole, the historian from Michigan, about the Middle-East. Most of the attention goes to Iraq and Afghanistan, but there are also, obviously, a couple of minutes for Israel.

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The lines of Brabant and much more - Historyzine podcast review

Historyzine's ongoing narrative is about the Spanish War of Succession and by the end of the latest episode, host Jim Mowatt continues where he left off last time. The year 1703 had been very successful for his hero the Duke of Marlbourough, but in 1704 he was facing difficulty at the Lines of Brabant. Some of his allies let him down and left him facing the French in an advantageous position. Find out how the Duke keeps the alliance together and attempts a daring attack.

The story of Duke Marlbourough is a much smaller part of the whole podcast this time. Mowatt reveals to us, he has been investigating his family tree and shares his discovery how personal history can tie in with the grand scheme of affairs. He adds an interview with genealogy podcaster Lisa Louise Cooke to further elaborate on genealogy, the excitement and the increased possibilities to do research with all that the internet has to offer.

In addition to all this, he also brings his charming language trivia (where does the phrase 'to fork out' come from?) and a history podcast review. The review is about the widely acclaimed BBC production In Our Time, which I have review frequently as well.

More Historyzine:
Historyzine at its best,
The battle of Blenheim,
Reliving the War of Spanish Succession,
The year 1703,
On admirals and more.

The fox and the hedgehog

The podcast From Israelite to Jew (feed), by Michael L. Satlow is an ongoing study into the development and nature of the Hebrews in early antiquity. This was the time they developed from Israelites, a nation, or a set of tribes within a loose nation into an ethnic group the Jews. It offers a very clear and accessible insight into the study of the Bible and history.

Within the series is one exceptional episode that is hardly related to the subject at all and it bears the enigmatic title The hedgehog, the fox and the Talmud. Even though this episode is reflecting on the study of the Talmud and I have little or no understanding of the Talmud, there was quite a chord struck in me.

Satlow ponders upon the question how the Torah and consecutively the Talmud can be studied if they are such a vast collection of writings. Those writings are from different ages, from different perspectives and ideologies and also of different natures and styles. How can one take this hotchpotch as one whole with some kind of unity and system that can be studied? A beginning of an answer he finds in Tolstoy and his use of the fox and the hedgehog as animals who each have a different way of perception and approach to reality and these than serve as exemplars of how one can think. It resonated in me with my old struggles when I was writing my PhD about the system of Law and had to find some way of assuming logic and unity within the vast body of the Law that is also an anthology of different kinds of rules, from different ages and with different goals, values, criteria and ideologies in mind.

It seems to me that Satlow by applying Tolstoy's analogy to the study of Talmud, makes an application that is useful in many other fields of study, theory of Law not in the least.

Asher Susser - UCLA Israel Studies Program

In the previous lecture at the UCLA Israel Studies Program (feed) Israeli diplomat Jacob Dayan reconstructed the recent war in Gaza as not one between Israel and the Palestinians, but rather between the moderates and the radicals in the region. A feeble presentation, since one cannot assume the Israelis are but moderates nor that the moderate Palestinians and other Arabs have applauded the Israeli attack.

A much more sophisticated way to apply this logic to the narrative of the Gaza War was attempted by Asher Susser in the next installment of the same podcast. Susser is much more specific who these radicals are, or what the Hamas establishment in Gaza represent: an outpost of Iran. And herei t makes a bit more sense to assume that other powers such as Egypt, Saudi-Arabia, Fatah etc. were in some way served by a cutting down of the Gaza striking power. Not that they applauded the attack, but that they are not served at all by having all this Iranian influence in the region.

The extent to which this logic has truth to it, it has been applied in the most inefficient way, I venture to say. The wider public has more support for Hamas than ever even if the infrastructure by which Iran supports Gaza has been broken. If at all such violence was needed, a far more successful application of this logic should be available in diplomacy. If Susser is right that Iran and Turkey, much to the dismay of the Arabs, have gained power in the last decade in the region, then that opens an inroad for dialog and cooperation between Israel and moderate Arabs. And if the radicals among are needed to be dealt with, better have the Arabs sort that out among themselves, rather than Israel wreak the havoc.

Previously about UCLA Israel studies podcast:
Jacob Dayan,
Gabriela Shalev,
Galia Golan, Aaron David Miller,
Shimon Shamir.

The waste land - In Our Time

Here is a short review of the latest BBC's In Our Time which paid attention to one single poem T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land

Usually IOT tackles huge subjects and therefore, in advance, I was a bit concerned what would happen if Melvyn and the guest had but one single poem to discuss. The limit of the subject turned out to be a blessing though. Still there wasn't time enough, but contrary to normal experience with IOT, more than just the surface was scratched.

Aside from the necessary biographical notes on the author and history of coming in to being of the poem ample time was meted out to quote from the poem, ponder upon its meaning and palette of interpretations. The Waste Land, even though it was seriously edited by Eliot and the poet Ezra Pound which had left it shorter and rather inaccessible, had an enthusiastic reception. A returning meaning in all the ways of interpretation is how The Waste Land captured modernity and the life in the metropolis and did so in rather grim and unforgiving tones.

More In Our Time:
The destruction of Carthage,
The brothers Grimm,
The modest proposal,
History of history,
Darwin special.