I just did a quick search and it seems the mouth piece for this particular group is the Western Shugdan Society. They appear to have unlimited funds to put to their cause of undermining the DL. Now this comment is not to say that the Chinese Gov is behind them, It's simply too difficult to get information but of course the supporters of the DL are stating this.
Random Thoughts on visiting China to understand Tibet.
by fulltimestudent 25 Replies latest social current
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MrFreeze
Doesn't the Dalai Lama want to bring back what the old Tibet used to have, namely forced slave labor?
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fulltimestudent
That's OK, Satanus - of course you do not have to comment, just because someone ( me or others) asks you to. I was wondering if you had some definite thoughts, that may have led to an interesting discussion.
People throw the word 'propaganda' around very easily, but what do they really mean? For example, if I post some information concerning some place, am I engaging in an act of propaganda? Would it still be the same if I talked about the Great Barrier Reef in Aust.? If a country talks about its accomplishments or hopes, is it making propaganda?
How can we tell the difference between propaganda and information? (Now I'm speaking rhetorically)
When the author of Hebrews (in Ch, 11) talks about Bilical characters, acting 'by faith.' Is it just propaganda? For example, vs 5 makes certain claims about Enoch, that are unsupportable from any previous (accepted) sources, is it just adapting a story to make propaganda? Verses 8-10 claim Abraham had faith to expect "a city (to come)' , "by faith was awaiting the city having real foundations." How did the author know that? So could we say that it was just propaganda?
Come closer to our time. As a young man, I was stirred to action by the JW films, "The New World Society in Action" and "The Happiness of the New World Society." Was I watching (grin) propaganda? Or, was I watching a deep "conviction" rooted in faith? If some of the convinced Christians who come here, paint a picture of life in heaven with Jesus, is it propaganda or reality? When (in the door-to-door work) we read Isaiah 9:6 to householders, was that work just another way of disseminating propaganda?
That's all airy-fairy, isn't it? But does it help us have some notions about propaganda?
What are all the above examples attempting to do? It could be suggested that they are all attempts to influence and shape the opinions of others. If that's what its about, where then is the difference between propaganda and discussion? Or does all discussion become propaganda?
Is it propaganda only when information conflicts with our beliefs?
Just some thoughts on the matter.
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fulltimestudent
doofdaddy, It is almost impossible on Youtube to tell who is putting some of the information together. However, I've kind of kept in touch with the Shugden controversy for a while. I do not think that there's any doubt that the dispute is genuine, but of course it is quite possible for other parties to manipulate the dispute.
The focus of my comments of course, is the treatment of the 'apostates' by the D/Ls party. Do they have to be treated as Jehovah's witnesses treat so-called apostates ?
Mt. Freeze, I very much doubt that the D/L wants to, or could for that matter, bring back serfdom to a Tibet that he (or his party) controlled.
Those days went for good when he made the decision to leave Tibet even though we do not know exactly what the D/L and his party expected when they left Tibet. Since most of his party were the fomer nobility, it could be imagined that they expected to regain the landed estates that they formerly owned, and which the Communists distributed to Tibetan peasants in a land reform program. But most of those people (the former gentry) would be dead or approaching death and what expectations their descendents have does not seem to be discussed.
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fulltimestudent
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Satanus
The best propaganda mixes truth w untruth. It can use truth, but present it in a twisted way from a setting staged by the presenter. It can be truthful stories w multiple parallel false versions mixed around it. Propaganda could consist totally of facts, but w key facts left out. That could totally skew how things are viewed. There are many other variations, of course. If enough information is available, a more real picture can be discerned by a person who seeks truth. I have some knowledge of the western propaganda. However, of chinese, i know very little.
Is china less propagandistic than the west? It is newer to the world playing field. However, it's culture is much older than the wests, and so should by now, have it practices of manipulation refined. One need only think of sun tzu's art of war, and the game called go.
Lets face it, on the globe, each country takes on an animalistic nature in competeing for territory, resources and image. Countries also form cooperatives similar to animal packs or pairs. That nature runs from the very top of earth civilization, down to the bottom at the microscopic or nanoscopic level. That nature is also in evidence in the cosmos, among the stars, star systems, galaxies, clusters of galaxies and super clusters.
As a culture, i believe china has less internal philosophical conflicts at its core, compared to the christian west. So the need for secrecy and the level of hypocracy may be less.
But again, it's a subject of which i know little.
S