Taliban and the Bamiyan Buddhas
example · geopolitical/contemporary ·
retold in 3 talks
Western outrage at the Taliban's destruction of the Buddha statues was framed as defense of 'culture', not genuine religious belief, revealing that it is the West that maintains mere cultural distance, while the Taliban were, paradoxically, closer to actual belief.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 3
“Those who take seriously their culture are called fundamentalist barbarians. The term culture means we want to have our distance.”
“That now you almost convinced me the Taliban were right to bomb those statues. Because the negativity should remain pure.”11:45 Slavoj Zizek - Buddhism, happiness and sacrifice day 02 audience questionspub. 2023-04-23 · 49:52
“they are taking Buddhism much more seriously than us. They saw „We have a truth, this is an alternative truth and we have to destroy it."”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
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populated by
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Every retelling 3
Western outrage at the Taliban's destruction of the Buddha statues was framed as defense of 'culture', not genuine religious belief, revealing that it is the West that maintains mere cultural distance, while the Taliban were, paradoxically, closer to actual belief., illustrating culture as distance from belief,the Big Other,belief
11:45 Slavoj Zizek - Buddhism, happiness and sacrifice day 02 audience questionspub. 2023-04-23 · 49:52
After learning that Greek influence gave the Buddha a representational form, Žižek jokes that the Taliban were almost right to bomb those statues because 'negativity should remain pure', immediately clarifying that pure negativity means nothing behind the phenomena, not higher spirituality., illustrating the fall retroactively creates what it is the fall from,nothingness of immanence itself,gap of reality
When the Taliban bombed the Buddha statues in Bamyan, Žižek argued they were taking Buddhism more seriously than Western multiculturalists, they recognized a real conflict of truth where tolerant relativism sees many parallel truths., illustrating religion as fear of authentic religion