The peace of Mongolian folds
These cosmetics, of course, place value not on health but on beauty -- on how others see you.
According to them, it is self-evident that aging is negative, that an aged appearance is ugly, and that youth is beautiful.
What if someone asked them the following?
"Was aging really that negative? Did Vincent van Gogh's Uncle Tanguy paint ugly things because he was fascinated by them?"
They might respond:
"Probably not. But there are people who want it, so why not sell it?"
Well,that's true.
There is a video of Joseph Goebbels giving a speech at what appears to be a Nazi Party rally - I'm not sure exactly where - saying "good government needs good propaganda." Immediately afterwards, the audience bursts into laughter. I saw in that laughter a kind of remorse, as if to say, "Is it really OK to say something like this so openly?"
But I wonder whether Goebbels or the Nazi Party members of the time had any ethical concerns about "interfering with how someone sees things."
A German translation of the Sutta Nipata was published by Fausboll in 1889, and in 1911 a version with detailed annotations by Neumann was also published. Goebbels received his doctorate in literature from the University of Heidelberg. Heidelberg University is well known for having had professors such as Hegel and the pioneer of comparative religion, Max Weber, but it is questionable whether Goebbels studied philosophy or comparative religion thoroughly. And when it comes to primitive Buddhism, they may have never even heard of it. Incidentally, the title of Goebbels' doctoral thesis was "Wilhelm von Schütz as a Playwright: A Contribution to the History of Romantic Drama." Words like "boring" and "mediocrity" are simply insufficient to describe it.
We will explore these points on another occasion, but for now, we can agree that people involved in publicity and advertising may not have much of an ethical concern about "intruding on how someone sees someone."
Now, those who want to remove the mongolian fold through cosmetic surgery may argue against Buddha Shaka Muni.
"No, no, that's what I care about - how he sees me."
So, who wins this contest? As for me? If I were the referee, I would give the victory to Buddha Shaka Muni. The winning move was a brilliant and clever twist. Some of you may have some objections, but I would like to leave that for the Q&A session that follows.
I'm sure I'll soon be met with a jeer, "So what does your story have to do with 'Encouragement of Learning'?", so I'd like to move on.
I think that many of these people who want to remove mongolian folds don't have the idea of whether there is an ethical problem with others interfering with what one person sees in a certain way. Perhaps some of them have never thought about ethics themselves.