Summary: Episode Description: What is the message of Buddhism today? Self-improvement? A fulfilling life? An understanding of the mysteries of the human condition? How does McLuhan's famous dictum "the medium is the message" apply now that people are connecting with Buddhism in radically different ways? In this episode, taken from the Buddhist Geeks Conference in 2012, Ken McLeod explores how McLuhanâs famous dictum âthe medium is the messageâ might apply to Buddhism. Episode Links: Unfettered Mind Transcript: Ken McLeod: Winter is coming. The summer of affluence is over. There are forces at work in the world which in my characteristically Eeyore pessimistic view, threaten the very foundations of western civilization. Iâm not talking just about climate change, environmental issues, although those are certainly very high on the agenda. But Iâm also talking about the emergence of a global elite which is making a mistake, that elites have [made] historically, that they can get along without the rest of us. So, the upshot of this is that we are entering an age which is probably going to be different from the extraordinarily benign circumstances which I and my generation grew up in. Things are getting harsher. Resources are more limited. The Club of Romeâs Limitations of Growth may have been a little bit premature in the 60s but we may actually be hitting some limits now. And when this happens, when things start to change as Blake said, or no Yeats I think, the centers fall apart. And people move to the left or the right. And how things evolve depends very significantly on that. Historically, when things fall apart, the preponderance of people move to the right because they are afraid. They are afraid based on exactly what we know in Buddhism, the three marks. They fear for their survival. They try to avoid the pain. And they struggle to hold on to their identity and who they think they are. Unfortunately, you cannot build a society; you cannot build a civilization based on anger and fear. Anger and fear are simply the tools by which those who have power can manipulate the population. And I think we can see this in our world today not only in this country but elsewhere. A lot of what weâre doing here is talking about technology and people are looking to technology to mitigate or free us from this kind of evolution. So this morning what I want to do is to talk very seriously about a different way of thinking about technology and to a lesser extent innovation. And if this is a little rough I have to ask for your indulgence. I had a talk plan. Yesterday I went for a walk with my friend Hokai who is here and he made a few comments on my ideas. They were very helpful. And though he wasnât aware of this the result was I completely rewrote my talk an hour and a half ago. So thank you, Hokai. It is, well you will judge. Pardon? Hokai: Iâll never talk to you again. (laughter) Ken: Itâs what friends are for. I actually am extremely grateful because it was very very helpful. So we tend to think of technology as this kind of things computers, electronic stuff. Thatâs certainly one way to think about it. But technology in its broader sense is a systematic way of doing things. And there are many different technologies. Chinese developed technologies from metallurgy 4000 years ago. Buddhism is extraordinary rich in spiritual technologies. One of the great inventions, I think itâs possibly the greatest invention of the 20th century, is the psychological technology for being able to stop the passing on of dysfunctional family patterns in one generation. If you refer to the Bible it says â..for the Lord thy God is a jealous god visiting with iniquity the sins of the father unto the children nigh unto the seventh generation.â Which is a way of saying family disfunctions take seven generations to play themselves out. We now have the technology due to Virginia Satir and others to stop this in one generation.
