The Wests fascination with the Dalai Lama

Everybody has probably heard by now the turmoil going on in Tibet, right? If you don't follow the Olympic torch relay and don't follow international news then I guess you probably haven't heard.

Seems there's been some riots targeted at Han and Chinese sympathetic businesses, etc. Sometime within the last couple months.

Now, this post isn't about the riots. It's about His Holiness. The Supreme Spiritual Leader of the Tibetan people and all of Tibetan Buddhism. He is purported to be an incarnation of the Buddha himself. This post is also about how we in the West seem enamored of His Holiness.

Think about it. It's a theocracy! One god-man makes the rules for all his people. There are some Tibetans who are seeking independence as a republic (which in my opinion is the more rational thing to do than pine over a displaced god-king).

So why are we in the West so sympathetic to this shyster. Even if he believes he is [an] incarnate Buddha; I don't. It's a double standard to support a theocratic regime in the Dalai Lama when we demonize a theocratic regime in Tehran.

So what is it about the Dalai Lama that we in the West feel so sympathetic for him? Because he's peaceful? Maybe. A theocratic regime that poses no threat to our Western interests is a-okay so long as they lie down and be pacified. If not then we can sing along with John McCain: "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran".

Maybe it's because so many people are enamored of their religious leaders (you know, their pastors, reverends, priests, etc) that they feel that these same fools should lead us politically. That we in the West long for a leader of faith. That's really fucked up, but I would wager it's not too far off the mark.