Thursday, January 25, 2007

another number one

I'm not exactly proud of this one:

Seung Sahn scandal

Some members of the Kwaneum School, which Seung Sahn established, weren't particularly pleased with my having brought this scandal up long ago, but I'm not as willing to forgive the old bugger because, whatever his virtues (and I do think he was, on the whole, a wise and perceptive individual), he succumbed to a temptation that arises for many men in authority-- the temptation to abuse that authority for sex. One could argue that he "proved he was only human," but one could say the same thing about a man who hauls off and punches his wife through a wall. Is a wife who quickly forgives this transgression doing the right thing?

I'm alarmed when it's women who defend Seung Sahn's actions*-- this is just as disconcerting as when feminists rallied behind Bill Clinton despite his having shown, multiple times, that whatever his rhetoric, he was no respecter of women.





*Not defend, exactly, but some women do seem to want to minimize the significance of his actions.


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