Essay on Paradigms
This will take you at the very least, the absolute minimum, two double spaced pages, but you may write up to four. Please submit your answer in Word or as a PDF.
Part One (60 points):
Consider the following scenario from three points of view: Buddhist, Ideal American, and the Nazi Sacred Bloodline. Be sure to consider and comment on each of the characters regarding what each should be most concerned with, what each should do in the scenario, and what ideas or texts support these actions. Remember, you are not giving your own point of view but thinking from the two paradigms.
You are a high-ranking government agent who has received messages that a Mexican drug cartel group is holding hostages from your country and threatening to start killing them, one per day until you release several of their members that have been convicted of both major drug dealing and mass murder. You have not been able to discover where the cartel is holding these hostages, and time is running out. A high-ranking member of the cartel is in your custody awaiting trial for the same offenses, and when you question him about it, he is smug, as if he knows something but won’t say. His wife and children happen to be in the country receiving treatment at a hospital for a chronic, life-threatening condition. You have complete authority regarding what to do next.
Part Two (40 points):
Consider the following scenario from two points of view: Traditional Shinto and a Feminist point of view. Be sure to consider and comment on each of the characters regarding what each should be most concerned with, what each should do in the scenario, and what ideas or texts support these actions. Remember, you are not giving your own point of view but thinking from the two paradigms.
Demeter and Persephone
Zeus, King of all the Gods, had three sisters: Hera, Queen of the Gods, was also his wife and the Goddess of Marriage; Hestia was the Goddess of Home and Hearth and Demeter was Goddess of the Harvest, responsible for the crops and for feeding the people.
Demeter was loved by all humans for her gift of soil and gentle, mild weather to grow their crops. They worshipped her for her caring and kindness. She was very much a ‘hands on’ and ‘happy to help’ sort of Goddess. Persephone was Demeter’s only child. Like her mother, she was kind and caring, with a happy nature and the most dazzling smile. She was the sort of person who spread light and happiness wherever she went and so, naturally, she was loved by everyone but most especially by her mother.
Hades, mighty ruler of the Underworld, had spied her on one of his trips to the world above. He was dazzled by her beauty, her elegance and her charm. He decided that he must have her as his wife. Knowing that Demeter would never agree to her daughter living with him in his gloomy world of the dead, he decided to visit his brother, Zeus, to discuss the matter. Surprisingly, the great god Zeus agreed to Hades’ plan, to abduct the young woman and take her to his realm. He rode his chariot to the upper world and kidnapped her. At first, Persephone cried and cried, until she had no more tears left to weep. She refused all offers of food, for she had heard the legend that those who eat in the Underworld can never return. So she determined not to let a morsel of food pass her lips.
In revenge on Zeus, Demeter withdrew all of her fertility power from the earth, so the earth turned dry and barren, and people began to die. Finally, Zeus agreed to allow Persephone to come back to the living world. But Hades made Persephone feel sorry for him because of his loneliness in the underworld. Before Hermes could come and get her, Hades held a pomegranate in his hand and said, “Persephone, my love, I am so worried that you will fade away if you do not eat. Look at this sweet fruit, taste just a little for pities’ sake.” Looking deep into his eyes, the girl carefully reached out her hand and took the luscious fruit to her lips. Deliberately, she swallowed a few seeds, just six.
That is why Persephone can only come back to the living world six months out of the year and the rest of the time she keeps Hades company in the underworld for the other six months.
From the point of view of Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths provide the guidance needed in this problematic situation. Clearly, everyone in the story is suffering, and like what the Four Noble Truths says, this suffering is because of selfishness, greed, and desire. On the part of the government agent, there is a desire to stop the Mexican drug cartel’s plan against the hostages. The high-ranking member of the cartel is of course part of a group which is selfish, greedy, and full of desire that is why they commit crimes. Even the cartel member’s wife and children are suffering as a consequence or karma of the cartel’s crimes. If the government agent uses the wife and children or makes them suffer because of his desire to force the cartel member to give him the information needed to save the hostages, then he will not have stopped the cycle of selfishness, greed, and desire. In order to break the cycle, they must all follow the right belief, for the right purpose, use right speech, do right conduct, choose the right vocation, do the right effort, and have the right thoughts. This means that the government agent must not harm the wife and children, and must speak and treat the cartel member in the right manner. This is what is enlightened thing to do according to Buddhism.
