Intended as a contribution to the study of religion and society; this book examines Buddhist monasticism in Myanmar. The book focuses on the Shwegyin; one of the most important but least understood monastic groups in the country. It illuminates key aspects of monastic and wider Burmese Buddhist thought and practice; and ultimately argues for the distinctiveness of elements of that thought and practice in comparison to the Buddhist cultures of Sri Lanka and Laos.
#74006 in Books WND Books 2017-03-14Original language:English 8.00 x .65 x 5.46l; .55 #File Name: 1944229620240 pages
Review
150 of 171 people found the following review helpful. Absolutely TrueBy Bask In My AwesomenessNo Campus for White Men should be required reading for every parent thinking of sending his/her child to college; and every high school student prior to making a decision to attend college. This book is relatively short; easy to read; and flows nicely. It is a compendium of needed information on the hate culture that has been bread on college campuses. Other reviewers are going to give you a more in depth summary. I am going to take a different approach.As a former higher education administrator (12 years); I can tell you that what's in this book is absolutely true. Different institutions have different levels of indoctrination; but overall; critical thinking and free expression have pretty much disappeared from campuses. Instead; social justice warriors and their faculty/administrator helpers; have stifled debate and discourse. You will rarely see an industry that is more hypocritical than higher education. The "all-inclusive" and "free exchange of ideas" propaganda is exactly that: propaganda. Once you get there (if you're not denied outright for being white; or in some cases; a male regardless of race); you will discover that you are welcome only if you abide by a strict code of how you can express yourself; what words you can use; what ideas you can transmit; etc. The funny thing about this strict code is that it isn't written down in a clear manner. "Hate speech" is whatever the SJW walking by you and overhearing your conversation decides it will be. "Free speech" is whatever MTV; BET; CNN; etc. tell you it is.To top it all off; the value of a higher education degree has diminished greatly. That's a whole other subject entirely; one that an entire book could be written about. But needless to say; not only should one consider the ROI (return on investment) of a degree; but consider the contents of this book. Again; the degree to the truth behind the author's assertions varies from campus to campus. The "ivy leagues" are probably the furthest gone but in reality; if you are a male; especially a white male; you are at a severe disadvantage. There are more and more opportunities to make a living that do not require that you sink yourself tens of thousands of dollars into debt only to come out with a degree that does not get you anywhere (obviously; if you want to enter a profession that requires a degree; you've gotta do what you've gotta do).There. That's my 2 cents. Read this book. Share it. If you are even remotely interested in this book then; deep down inside; you already suspect most of its contents to be true.75 of 86 people found the following review helpful. Absolutely on the mark. An intellectual; almost scholarly dissection of the most vicious cancer on the American body politicBy Graham H. SeibertAmerican college campuses are almost uniformly hostile to white men. Although this is commonly known; the pervasiveness and insidiousness of the situation is easy to overlook.Scott Greer is one of the founders of the libertarian online newspaper "The Daily Caller." He has written a systematic analysis of the problem. He investigates the intellectual history of the animus against white men and goes into significant detail about how it plays out on campus.Greer does not include any personal experience in his account. He also fails to mention the low key; day-to-day hostility that a white male experiences on a modern campus. I experienced it firsthand when returned to the University as a graduate student in 2003; at the age of 60. At that stage in my life I was not looking forward to starting a career; so I could look upon the abuse I took with amused detachment. It was; however; quite real. I include anecdotes of my experience as Comment 1 below.Race and sex are the two dominant themes in the anti-male campaign. The suppositions that can never be disproved or dismissed are that white men are inherently sexist and racist. The system is constructed in such a way that no amount of apology; reparations or groveling can compensate for the injustices supposedly suffered by the victims. Greer's chapter organization frames the discussion quite well:1 Cult of DiversityWithout any proof; and in fact quite conspicuously evading any attempt at proof; campuses have adopted the premise that diversity is a good thing. Anybody who questions the premise is assumed to be a bigot of the worst sort. For an amusing incident that corroborates Greer's argument Google "Bucking the College Diversity Cult." For a well-written critique of the diversity phenomenon from a decade and a half back; see Diversity in America: Keeping Government at a Safe Distance.2 Political Correctness in the Age of MicroaggressionsThe "gotcha" that campus progressives invariably use is the unfalsifiable claim. If they call you a racist; you are powerless to prove that you are not. The tag sticks and you are ostracized. Microaggressions are the same thing. If a member of some protected minority – anything but a straight white male – accuses you of saying something that they find offensive; you have no defense. Google "how to get offended unilad" for a satire on the topic.Nonetheless; they take microaggressions extremely seriously on campus. I have been prompted to put trigger warnings on some of the stuff on my website. It is ridiculous; and I do it tongue-in-cheek; but that is where our society has gone.The result has been to absolutely stifle discussion of controversial issues on the premise that even talking about them constitutes an aggression.3 Victimhood CultureGreer does a great service in this chapter by providing a probing analysis of the intellectual basis for the culture of victimhood. It goes like this.Societies historically valued honor as a supreme virtue. In honor-based societies the man had to defend his reputation and that of his family; even to the point of deadly fights. Honor-based societies were characterized by weak or absent authority. The individual had to take the task of enforcing justice upon himself. The American West is the example that Greer sites.Once government structures came in place; honor-based societies were replaced by dignity-based societies. We no longer fought one another; but we expressed our dignity through self-sufficiency and adherence to the law. Once again; reputation was paramount.The third ethic is one which Greer calls the culture of victimhood. He traces its intellectual roots back to Nietzsche's "Slave mentality." In a culture of victimhood there is no hierarchy of moral or ethical values. It is a free-for-all of competing claims for special treatment to reverse past offences. The assumption is that straight white males have committed almost all of the offenses.It is worth buying the book for this chapter alone. It explains why the problem is so dangerous and difficult to grapple with.4 Identity PoliticsIdentity politics is the opposite of the melting pot theory. It was once assumed that we all came together into a single American polity and we would put aside our selfish; parochial group interests to seek the common interest of the country. Now it is the opposite – each group seeks its own gain; at the expense of the others.Part and parcel of this theory is "white privilege." Because whites have supposedly been on top in the past; they and they alone are forbidden from looking out for their own interests. Every campus in America has a Black Student Union. No campus has a White Student Union – it would be supremely racist.5 Guilty of Being WhiteEven Greer apologizes more than I think necessary for the darker chapters in man's history. While it is true that Europeans and Americans practiced slavery; it is equally true that just about every culture in the world did likewise. Moreover; a great many whites figured among the slaves in America; and a not insignificant number of Blacks figured among the slaveholders. Also incontrovertible is that the treatment of black slaves in the United States was far more humane than their treatment by Portuguese in Brazil –see my English review of Historia Da Escravidão or by the Arabs. The Arabs; for instance; prevented interbreeding by the simple expedient of castrating their African slaves. Americans did not do that.Forcing whites to apologize for being White; acknowledging their suppose it privilege has been going on since the 1960s. Read Tom Wolfe's Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers. It has worked extraordinarily well. Observe the way the Germans continually beg forgiveness for the Holocaust; whereas the people they victimized are singularly unrepentant about their genocides they have led in Ukraine and Palestine. See Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict; The Jewish Century; and Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.6 Rape Culture FeminismThe campus rape epidemic is a totally manufactured phenomenon. Rape has always been a factor wherever young men and women are together; but it was and remains less of one on campus than elsewhere. Though Greer does not make this argument; it is only common sense. Rape is strongly correlated with at least three factors: socioeconomic status; intelligence and race. The admissions process ensures that college men come from the demographics least inclined to rape by these measures. Google "The Color of Crime" for more detail.The rape meme is already rather long in the tooth. For a picture of the situation in the 1990s; when the madness started; read The Morning After: Sex; Fear; and Feminism; There was nothing there; there is nothing there; and yet the drumbeat is relentless.It is a fact that campus athletes; predominantly African-American; have participated in a greatly disproportionate number of campus rapes. However; this is played down by all parties concerned. Administrators want to protect their football teams; and they want to protect the myth that rape is a white problem. That is the opposite of the case.There have been a vast number of hoaxes with regard to rape: the Duke University lacrosse team; the Jackie Coakley hoax; and many other that Greer enumerates.Greer does not mention the single headline case of rape which actually resulted in a conviction. Stanford varsity swimmer Brock Turner went to jail for raping a woman whose identity is still unknown. Social justice warriors celebrated the win; but were hugely disappointed that it resulted only in a three month sentence. They made a strong attempt to have the judge who handed out such a lenient sentence disempaneled.Reading the details of the case on the Internet; one finds that both Turner and the woman had drunk far too much that night. She was unconscious. The two were lying on the grass someplace on the campus and he had her panties down and was fingering her genitals. It would be impossible to know whether or not his fingers penetrated – the textbook definition of rape – but DNA tests showed that nothing else did. I can assure you; dear reader; that 50 years ago this would have been no big deal. And even in 2017 it probably would've been no big deal except that Turner had the bad luck to become a Great White Male Defendant.7 Greeks under SiegeThe fraternity/sorority system is a legacy of the days in which white men dominated the American campus. It has been an institution that instilled civic values; gave young people an opportunity to rise to campus leadership positions; and gave young men and women of a certain social class a milieu in which they could meet and marry.As an emblem of supposed white privilege the system is under siege on almost every campus. Campus administrations bend over backwards to persecute them; as in the Duke lacrosse team case. Greer provides a number of examples.8 Art of the HoaxSince white males do not reliably commit a sufficient number of egregious offenses; the victim classes feel obliged to make things up. The chapter on rape describes hoaxes in the realm of sex; this chapter covers mainly racially oriented hoaxes.9 Whither Will Campus Insanity Take America?This is the concluding chapter. The most optimism it can offer is that this is a passing phase. White men have to tough it out.The first thing is to recognize that a college education is not the value proposition that it used to be. College educations are hugely expensive. Parents have to recognize that it involves a significant investment in a product of dubious worth while at the same time subjecting children to several years of intense brainwashing about social justice issues. Why would you pay for that?Greer offers some alternatives. I recommend Hacking Your Education: Ditch the Lectures; Save Tens of Thousands; and Learn More Than Your Peers Ever Will and The Nearly Free University and the Emerging Economy: The Revolution in Higher Education.I also recommend from personal experience attending university far from America. Canada and Europe are not far enough. They are overwhelmed with the same race and sex issues; the same anti-male bias as America. I sent one daughter to college in Ireland only to have her emerge as a radical social justice warrior. No – you need to go farther. I would recommend Eastern Europe; where sex roles are still more or less traditional. Men are appreciated. I would even recommend Ukraine; where I now live. Granted that the degree will not carry much prestige in the United States; one can still receive a good education from the top universities here. The cost is extremely reasonable. But most important to a young man; the campus women are still feminine; still interested in marriage. A secondary benefit would be becoming fluent in another language. This is also a business opportunity. I include as Comment 2 a business plan that I outlined for delivering an American education in Ukraine.Epilogue: Trump Win’s And Campus InsanityTrump's win represents a sea change in America. He got 63% of the white male American vote – more than two thirds of the white male Gentile vote. America is fed up.Europe is also fed up. One of the most encouraging books you can read Generation Identity is; the call to arms of the Millennial revolt in Europe. Scott Greer is one of many voices making a similar call in America.120 of 139 people found the following review helpful. Essential reading!By A. ElizabethAs a mother of two boys; I commend Mr. Greer for having the guts to write this book in the midst of all the current PC madness in society; especially on college campuses.
