Hypocrites Should Not Criticize

It seems to me that the Orientals pride themselves in their religions that encourage great fairytale things like “do not utter evil and harsh words. Do not censure. Do not try to injure others,” etc. (817). However great these ideals are of Janism, Confuscionism, and Hinduism, the better question to ask ourselves is who actually practices these principles and what do they really mean? Jainism admits that their ideal, Ahimsa, is impossible to obtain in its absolute form (818). So if it is impossible to obtain it, how do you get the rewards of it and want to follow it?



As far as Hinduism is concerned, they claim that “the cow is a gift of gods to the human race” and that it represents the Divine Mother that sustains all human beings and brings them up as their very own offspring” (828). I find this very contradictory as Mother Nature sustains human beings by providing them with resources to eat. If the cow represents the “Divine Mother,” then wouldn’t it make sense that the cow is there to provide sustenance to humans? If political discussions are dominated by “issues such as beef-eating,” then obviously all the Hindus do not follow this rule or it wouldn’t be a political issue (831).



The Neo-Confusion Manifesto cites five instances that the West must learn from the East. I find it interesting that their religions focus on doing no evil to nature and this manifesto does not cite once an argument against the Western world’s fascination about eating meat. Instead, it stands behind principles its own people do not follow to accuse the west of needing to sense “the presence of what is at every particular moment,” (832) gain an “all embracing understanding or wisdom,” (832) obtain “mildness and compassion,” (833) “wisdom of how to perpetuate [our] culture,” (833) and finally to learn the “attitude that ‘the whole world is like one family’” (834). Notice that these criticisms focus on western society’s culture. Rather than pointing to specific erors in Western thought and judgment, this manifesto chooses to use rather large umbrella terms to gain a sense of superiority through societal beliefs rooted in a religion that their own people do not follow.





Oriental religion, such as Jainism, put an emphasis on the “transcendence of God above nature and the dominion of humans over nature” and then criticizes the worldview as being “largely anthropocentric, [where] nature is viewed as being of secondary importance,” then why does their economy depend on transporting cows out of their country for slaughter(811)? It is absolutely hypocritical to criticize western thought when eastern foundations are not firm. These people do not follow these strict rules that their religions claim. Earthlings showed several starved cows being transported just outside of India so that their hides could be used for leather to sell around the world. Rather than writing manifestos about the moral corruption of the West and what we must learn from the East, maybe the East should actually enforce these ideals that they are so proud of. Hypocrite.