Free Tibet
5 August 2008 - 5 אב 5768 by Huw
CONFESS I’ve been debating the whole Tibet thing. We’re supposed to light a candle in the window for Tibet and ignore the Olympics. Not having a TV, that last bit is easy for me. But Candles?
I mean, face it: prior to the invasion of Tibet by China and the overthrow of the Absolute Divine-Right Monarch… Tibet was, de jure and de facto, trapped in the Dark Ages. Outsiders were not even welcomed. Tibet had a caste system, an oppressive feudalism - where everyone worked to support the monastic monarchy and no one owned any land…
Now, granted, liberating anyone from communist oppression might be good. And, granted, the US rather likes Absolute Divine-Right Monarchs who oppose Communism.
In any other situation (Shah, Saudi Arabia, Rome) the left would not like the King, and would, instead, be supporting the Revolution.
The question is one of hypothetics: we know how bad on human rights China has been. What would have happened if the Dalai Lama had been left, unmolested, in his Mountain Fastness? Sure, as a Monarch in Exile, he’s rather cuddly. And no one can deny the horrors of Communist China coupled with Capitalist Cultural Export… But would he still be sitting up there in his Theatre, with his serfs doing the farming and worried about the earthworms? I don’t know.
China’s invasion brought in the outside world and destroyed a millennia of injustice - while setting up their own versions. They also destroyed a millennia of culture… but is it a culture we want to like?
What would have happened otherwise? I want to imagine that when the 60s rolled around, the Beetles would have discovered Tibetan Buddhism and hippies would have filled the lamasteries and all would have been cool. Instead we have this odd reality where the left supports the restoration of a Monarch.
And the right, seemingly, supports the communists - at least in this area.
Oy.
What would a free Democratic Tibet look like? Would we ever know under the previous gov’t? We know what he says now. But What would that child king have done if he had grown up with nothing to challenge his rule?
I don’t have an answer, but I ponder this issue often and come to the same conclusions/questions you have. I also find it incredibly amusing that most, if not all, of those Tibet flags people in the US wave were made in China. It also puzzles me how people who, before Richard Gere introduced the normal Joe Public to the Dalai Lama in the early 90s, the same people who do the free Tibet concerts are the same who wore Chairman Mao t-shirts.
Yes, I personally know at least two people like that.
Maybe like Nepal or Bhutan- not exactly model states, though the latter’s not too bad a of place, and Nepal has made a great deal of progress lately. At least they both have developed into more or less democratic states, despite having a somewhat similar past to Tibet’s. For that matter, look at Taiwan’s development- the KMT was pretty wretched itself, but Taiwan has managed to advance beyond that considerably. The problem in the PRC is that politics outside of the Party line is absolutely static- there is room for economic development, but political power remains in pretty much the same state as it did when Comrade Mao consolidated control.
But on the whole Tibet pop-culture thing- you’ll notice no one ever holds rallies for the Uighurs in Xingjiang Province- oppressed Muslim minorities just aren’t as hip as oppressed Buddhists.
Yes, by all means lets make another jab at those poor dumb liberals, cause if you know a couple of misguided souls on the issue of Tibet, then all liberals must be misguided! Ah, the glory of internet traditional conservatism!
Michael -
Try actually engaging the conversation and explaining what the deal is.
I was asking honest questions in my post: your comment seems to indicate I’ve committed some kind og grave sin by questioning the received wisdom.