Most of mankind, part two

Right. Why didn't we know sooner that this might happen.

I am afraid the people of my generation who worked in Burma before this are probably

to blame for not knowing. We were

ignorant we were ignorant of the modes through which a healthy

syncretism might be achieved in the Buddhist mind between

detachment from things of the world on the one side and the need

for things of the world offered as a compassionate exercise of

Muta. On the other. We spoke about sincerity in helping the

Burmese people reach new levels of standards of living. We

couldn't have spoken wider of the point. I will carry on I really

did not compass the operator of words and concepts

which would have had a real meaning to Burmese borders.

We simply didn't know anything about ourselves and our

values and what we projected of ourselves namely our sincerity

was the last thing that needed to be proved and what needed to be made available.

We failed to provide. We thought that because we were

speaking in English to graduates of Oxford Cambridge Harvard

London. There we were speaking to people who had left their values and their

cultures behind when they had gone to the United Kingdom or the United States.

We treated them as though in fact somebody had research already

succeeded in making them open in making them like us.

Now I'm saying that in spite of the fact that nobody could

fault our intentions. We studied the language. We could speak for me. It's a

difficult language. We learned there are institutions we would sit cross-legged

on mats all night watching the classical theater the classical opera the

marionette shows to absorb some of the values which these people projected through that

some of us marry the women of this country who if I may borrow

a well-known phrase from keep our joy forever.

Still we didn't realize what we would have to

connect in the Grammy's mind with what we were offering

in a more tragic case. It might be pointed out that in the years

1953 54 55 and 56

decisions were being made about the future conduct of our relations with Vietnam in

Washington by people who themselves today ruefully admit

didn't know a word of Vietnamese had never read Vietnamese

history. I had no idea of the extent to which Chinese

Confucian values had actually come to rule that country for a thousand

years. These were people who had not an ounce of

understanding of the habits and the traditions and the values of the Vietnamese people.

They had an ounce of knowledge of the symbolic importance of ceremonial

and ritual etiquette among people they hadn't an ounce of knowledge about the

divisions between the urban mandarins of Vietnam and the

dispossessed as those who roam the countryside having the least of their land by

French Colonials. Then to clue of the duplicity

of the Communists or the French colonials who each got rid of their

enemies by denouncing to the other side the enemies of each one

by betraying their whereabouts to the French police or to the Gullah Stalinist

goon squads respectively.

China is an even more tragic case if only because of its

enormous magnitude. And I can promise you to China

or mainland China of junk I shack and the new mainland China

amounted to on was based on a force but moving and at the time

deeply persuasive romanticism. Today.

We also have to add to this was romanticism. The

ship maps that have become part of the American ethos on the one side we

have William Randolph Hearst sprayers the yellow peril and to this has now

been added the German got the concept of the Red Menace. So we

have a double bogey man in communist China today a bogeyman which we might

call the red yellow menace peril. We're

deploying today and looking at China now as human

resources and intellectual energy unmatched in the history

of one nation's examination of another. China watchers in Hong

Kong. I mean intelligence apparatus our scholars in the

United States and elsewhere know more about the Chinese

than and this can truly be said than the Chinese know about

themselves. The tragedy is that these Americans know

nothing about America or Americans and they are often

analyzing their own satellite. Most of mankind is

avery and we seem to admit this belatedly to be

sure in assigning growing numbers of scholars to study and

teach the languages the cultures the histories and the values of the society.

This is all to the good. Ignorance no matter in what degree should become it.

But I feel that we ourselves are failing signally and we want to do

so as long as we only learn the other man's culture in order to

know how to cope with it in order to solve our own magnetic

problems. Our chief trouble is that our own

ignorance of the true nature of our own motors our society our

own mores our own social and spiritual values blinds us to a

real and successful effort to understand others we think ourselves

democratic and we are not a democratic nation.

We think ourselves generous and we are not a generous nation. We

are not a nation of generous people. How many people actually

exercise the old works of Korea vs which

consisted in helping the poor feeding the hungry comforting

the second visiting prisoners. How many of us would not rob.

Give our ten bucks to some automated charity and let some

kind of thieves in automation take care of our sense of obligation for

others rather than have a queasy feeling of helping

somebody personally.

It is this automation of our sentiments that has made us without

our knowledge almost incapable of communicating successfully

with Asians and of obtaining that cooperation.

What must we do. First we must place our actions on a rather more

selfless basis. And lightened self interest. A

term that has come into use in order to obtain support from both the pro

Me and energy aid sections of the electorate

is a cynical motive. People school in the traditions of midtown

or lovingkindness will not delay in coming to the heart of the matter in a very short

time and seeing it is a good deal more self interest than there

is and Lightman and such a policy. If they make

cynical uses of our aid and our military and other assistance

it will be who's to be outraged. Secondly

we must and this is indispensable. Take a

much more penetrating look at ourselves. I am not a fraud Ian

and I'm not suggesting a mass analysis of our culture. But a good bit of

intrusive introspection is I believe in order only in

the light of what we find out about ourselves. Will the easiest

cultures and the knowledge of them make much sense. Let's take the issue of

corruption. If we break a loudly

against corruption in Vietnam we insist to be offenders be

punished stripped of honors despoiled of their possessions exiled

or in prison. Their goodness neighbors must

be taken away from her. Now the crime a more often than not come from some

congressman who has several relatives on the payroll. But the fact is not

made easier to accept when you realize that there is a formal

injunction on people in the Confucian ethic such as

exists in Vietnam to the effect that they are under the deepest

obligation to help out the members of their families who need help.

The Vietnamese official therefore who hires dozens of nephews to work for

him at least has the advantage of being obliged to do this by a religious system.

And I think this is more than the hypothetical American congressman could claim.

Now the greater the Vietnamese officials power the deeper his obligation to an ever

larger number of relatives and followers. Now this is an important

ethical mandate and yet not now. Who is really corrupt.

I think self reliance. So nobody is deemed as to be

codified in a in an essay by Emerson separate lines of the great

American Virtue It's the embodiment of courage of independence of

human worth.

Then we are always slightly puzzled right. The Vietnamese fight.

Well I want the Indonesians fight all the time so the Filipinos are the Chinese

right.

Aren't they more independent. Why don't they do something and

only when they do do we become a bit mollified. Do we begin

here in a grumbling way to accept them. Now we

know in Vietnam that the Viet Cong from 1956 on

murder the patriarchal headed men of the villages in South Vietnam.

They knew what they were doing. By removing the symbol of authority

the Vietcong were also removing the motivation of the villagers to do one

thing rather than another to fight to resist or to go away.

The fact is that the villager in Vietnam does not make up his own

mind and decide things for himself. He does not in a word

praise or prize self reliance.

Councils of elders headed by the head man who is the man most deeply respected in the

pillars are deliberate on all matters affecting the common God

of all the villagers and always in the light of this greater good. They

decide what is justice in an individual case for an individual

petitioner. Now centuries of commune of living of this

sort does not make for much spontaneity of

judgment decision or resolution or

for self reliance. What the American tends to overlook

in that is that his tradition of self-reliance is not necessarily a universally

praiseworthy thing in a communist society. It is quite on the

other hand a deadly price. The American is

descended from dissidents and these broke away from one society to

make a new one over and again. Americans dissented even when the

dissenters. They broke off splinters struck out to new lands

new regions and they marched off with a yoke of oxen a Conestoga wagon

a suitcase full of merchandise a pick axe and a sense of liberty.

He had a whole continent. He didn't want to spoil the point.

Ledbetter no harmony with the goal of his thoughts and actions.

The people of Vietnam the people of Bali cannot be expected to

act this way in the first place. There is no way to govern

so that no departure can really liberate but the

contrary. The fact that there are no beams in Bali springs from the attachment of the

Balinese to his family and his private temple and attachment so

many that exile on a neighboring island only 10 miles

away is a matter for the most horrendous nightmares.

That is punishable precisely by this type of accident with the

result that one leaves money jewels and watches in a Balinese hotel room

with never a thought to their safety. You can always be sure they'll be there when you come back

from the beach. Now people are brought up in this tradition will simply

not find self-reliance useful. Quite the contrary it will too

often bring social reprisals of the most radical sort.

Therefore how can we expect a Vietnamese

peasant himself to take up a rifle and shoot somebody who's encroaching on his

political territory. It's folly to expect this and it's folly for us to judge the

Vietnamese peasant as an inferior pieces because of it. The fact

is we are being per blind now in

general. How do you explain the attitudes of this Vietnamese this

Chinese peasant.

The president in China certainly and yet no

in-ear of heaven. The gods

through signs which the peasant can recognize will indicate which side in

any dispute they favor and the pedant must side with the

faction so visibly and evidently smiled upon by fate.

If the French army is triumphant in Vietnam the Vietnamese peasant will

walk with the French colonial soldier from flowers his women

delighted to ally himself with them will the heavens bless.

After Gianni and to the peasant will see that Hanoi and which the

men have become the elector in the Boston sense of the weather

and their simple loyalty to their gods. Not necessarily the votes the men will

take take that thing now on or the group like yesterday were the enemy.

The signs of the gods are strange but they must be observed.

Now when I was growing up in a small New England town the bank if this

is possible was at least as holy a place as the church

the pastor though honored himself to the stodgy old

gentleman who owned the bank and quite a few textile factories besides

and probably good chunks of that then very good stock of the New Haven railroad.

There was the mystique of money in New England in those days. If you had it it

was as a result of your good. Conversely if you were very generous

you would get money. You would become rich and honored automatically. This

was not necessarily the result of self-reliance

because undermining everything was the concept that a Calvinistic God

had predetermined your salvation anyway and that your riches your virtue

and your self reliance on interchangeable were merely the signs

God given of this fact. The memory of his outlook is

not so distant as to make him comprehensible in the north east of the United States or

967 the ear of heaven approach of the Asian as

yet we scoff at it. Grumble growl and complain about high

taxes. Now what do all these observations lead to.

First of all to the need for us to be able to communicate with Asians successfully

we are not doing it now. We don't know how to. We use

dollars as the French use butter and the Italians tomatoes simply

because that's where we have the most up. We think of signs as a good attribute.

The bigger the better. When in fact she has size at the

sheer size of the American presence in Thailand today makes Don Juan

airport in Bangkok look like a large airfield in Texas with a small

delegation a visiting times. We cannot throw our signs around

and express expect mere verbal protestations of friendship to carry very

much weight and eloquence Soothing words are very

consoling to be at underfoot. Secondly we

must be able to obtain cooperation from nations important and lasting

cooperation. There are a great many of them and relatively few of us.

They are gifted intelligent honorable and dignified people with

refinements. Even among the humblest of them that we would sometimes be hard fought

hard to find even on Park Avenue.

But this we cannot do if we do not know why we are seeking their cooperation

offering ours nothing so baffling as American

aid has ever hit. Why do the Americans

do it. In truth even the Americans don't know

so we cannot expect many Asians to have a clear grasp of our intentions

especially those most difficult to perceive the good ones

in a world which is today not much larger than a golf ball.

We had better start learning to share a good many things to learn. A good many

things and to face a few unpleasant truths about ourselves.

If we don't the cooperation without which human beings may no longer be able to exist

will be forever forgotten. We have an opportunity with our

mystique of the equality of men if not with our practice

and with our traditions of thoughtful philanthropy if not with our love of neighbor

to help the world prepare to live in some sort of harmony. The quarters are

getting closer. We have the means to make a substantial

contribution to mankind. But first we must put ourselves into a

condition to bring this about. We must learn to appreciate the hundreds of

millions of Asians their culture and their great arts and their noble heritage. But

we must do even more earnestly take a look at ourselves.

Do we really believe in the equality of men in helping others.

I we really mean some seeking honest self-seeking might be

tolerable enough but our enemies may not even be that high.

In order to preserve a smug and self-satisfied social order we are trying

to make the world over in our own image and the good Brahmans of Boston did the Irish.

Then we are practicing up our charity and leading to our own subtle removal from the

center of the world of our world. The cabinets and the

models. We must remember who have been displaced by Kennedys

that they don't have learned from South Boston America and still learn from

major harmony of social orders could still be achieved.

But the physician must heal himself.

Thank you for the

aa.

Arise.

You heard Lionel Landry director of the Asia Society as he spoke on the topic.

Most of mankind. This was another programme in the

series. Peace love and creativity the hope of mankind.

The speaker on our next program will be Saul K. pad over chairman of the Department of

Political and social science at the New School for Social Research. Mr.

Pett over subject will be the causes of war. These

programs originate at the Cooper Union in New York City and are recorded by station

WNYC. The programs are made available to this station by the

national educational radio network.