Politix Lite. A little political humor is a good thing. Given the current state of affairs in this country, a sense of the ridiculous is even better. You have to go some distance to find a system as convoluted as ours has become. You know-- federal debt is not really such a bad thing when we do it, sure--we’re winning the war, the economy is (really!) good and who needs health care? I found it.
In the PR war for the mantle of political idiocy, China has made a bold move. Even with another 17 months or so of Dubya’s wit and wisdom ahead of us, we’ll be hard-pressed to top this: According to the Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs, a new law will go into effect come September. China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. The law, says a spokesperson for the government, strictly defines the procedures by which one is to reincarnate. It is “...an important move to institutionalize the management of reincarnation.”
Well. That’s a relief to every hard-working Chinese citizen. You can’t have Buddhist monks reincarnating willy-nilly, whenever and wherever they take a notion to do it. Before you know it you’ll have a bald, saffron-robed fellow meditating on every street corner, chanting some tuneless little ditty and expecting a free bowl of rice in the bargain. Not only that--if some thug goes after your wallet, beating you senseless in the process, the pacifist born-again monk won’t lift a finger to help you. Karma and all. It wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t done something creepy in a former life. You have it coming.
The point, actually, has nothing to do with protecting the citizens of China. It’s about another kind of protection altogether. The Dalai Lama has been living in exile in India since 1959. Many of his flock--all those other monks--are living in Tibet. The Chinese government seems to feel that, if they succeed in barring these monks from reincarnating, there will be no new little Dalai Lama reborn to do all that praying and relief-of-the-suffering nonsense on Chinese soil. Once authorities have secured control of the reincarnation issue they can simply pick and choose the new Buddhist leaders. More mainstream, tasteful types, maybe, who dress better; who don’t go around stirring up trouble about human rights, the poor, the sick and the hungry.
It may be that the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government strike a deal: Reincarnation at will as long as they keep it outside China and the Himalayan nation they seized over 50 years ago. How Buddhist monks will prove their adherence to the new law is yet to be determined.
One thing’s certain. We’ll never top this, despite our own current predilection with obsessing over who’s-what-religion and why it matters. Whether it’s ever a provable fact or not, the Chinese government wants reincarnation off the national agenda. Here it’s mighty hard to get elected to public office unless you swear you’re born-again. Whether you can prove it or not. Go figure.
By Linda Hansen,
columnist
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