When Helen Met the Buddhists
In conversation with Maitreyabandhu for PhilosophyEast
I particularly enjoyed this conversation. I would not have thought my liberal humanism and focus on evidence-based epistemology had much overlap with Buddhism, but my friend,
, informed me I was quite wrong about that and he was correct! Maitreyabandhu and I talked about Cynical Theories & the four themes of postmodernism that we argued formed the basis of Critical Social Justice (woke) scholarship and activism - the blurring of boundaries, the power of language, cultural relativism & the loss of the individual & universal - and how they conflict with liberal humanism & Buddhism!
Thank you so much for doing this, Helen. I'm part of the Triratna organisation that hosted your discussion with Maitreyabandhu. It's taken me a while to gain an understanding of your viewpoint; I made the mistake initially of expecting you to assert particular opinions on issues, whereas I now see that you're standing up for people's right to live, believe and act as they choose, provided they don't hurt others. And that you support evidence-based science where it's needed, along with the need for expertise where it matters too - I particularly liked your analogy about religious belief being fine as long as its not used as a qualification to fly an aeroplane!
It has saddened and troubled me that quite a lot of Critical Social Justice’s worst beliefs have flowed into Triratna without sufficient scrutiny. I'm thinking particularly of what I refer to as the hierarchy of oppression, where the expressed needs of the most oppressed outweigh those of other groups, and the individual is lost from view, along with universal values.
I particularly appreciated your emphasis on 3 perspectives of society; the individual, the “identity” group and the universal.
This fits neatly into a part of Triratna training, which encourages people to consider their relationship as an individual with the group as any kind of collective. We ask, am I a conformist or an individualist? Do I conform out of fear? Do I stand apart out of a self-view that I'm a rebel? The aim is to become independent of these modes, out of a belief that doing so brings a sense of freedom. And the universal approach asks us to develop a robust sense of what all people have in common, such as the wish to be free of suffering.
Standing apart from popular discourse and saying what you're convinced needs to be said in the face of abusive naysayers, as you do, is an admirable example of this.
The freedom that a clear conscience brings is a great boon in life, as I think you know.
Thank you
Thank you Helen, for this conversation! I am sitting with my sister, taking notes to help fortify our understanding of the differences between liberal social justice and critical social justice. I just love the questions Maitreyabandhu asks you! And the shared chuckles are just plain good for the soul. So grateful for all the clarity.