pynchon-l-digest V2 #1707

[Doug Millison]

Depends on how you define "regime" I guess.  Historically, Buddhism 
comes before Islam. In the sense of political regime, I wouldn't be 
surprised to learn that the Taliban is doing all it can to erase 
signs of the Soviet occupation, and earlier imperial presences.

Instead of castigating the Taliban, it might be better to find common 
ground, engage them in dialogue, and move towards a constructive 
interaction-- more than one observer has said that the more other 
nations treat them as a pariah, the more they may tend to behave as 
one. Violence begets violence.

>Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 13:03:27 -0500 (EST)
>From: kevin at limits.org
>Subject: iconoclasm
>
>On Wed, 14 Mar 2001, pynchon-l-digest wrote:
>>  Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 17:12:46 -0700
>>  From: Doug Millison <millison at online-journalist.com>
>>  Subject: Re: pynchon-l-digest V2 #1704
>>
>>  It doesn't remain confined to traditional religious movements, either
>>  - -- in China in the Great Cultural Proletarian Revolution of 1968-69,
>>  for example, some Red Guards defaced or destroyed temples, statues
>>  therein, and just about anything else (secular art, books, etc.) that
>>  they saw within the frame of the "Four Olds" against which they
>>  struggled as revolutionaries. Rebels did this, perhaps to a lesser
>>  degree, in France in their revolution (some statuary at Notre Dame de
>>  Paris and the cathederal at Chartres, if I remember correctly). It's
>>  probably safe to say this is a hallmark of revolutions in general, to
>  > deface the icons of the pre-existing regime.
>
>Yes, this is true, but keep in mind that the Buddhist statuary in
>Afganistan does not belong to the "pre-existing regime."  They've been
>there for centuries.  They even survived the days of Mahmud of Ghazni, who
>was known as the "destroyer of idols."
>
>The Taliban does have reasons for destroying the statues, but none of them
>bode very well for the health and weal of their people.
>
-- 
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