Picked up a copy of The Onion on the street corner in Manhattan and enjoyed this entry, headline “Tibetan Teen Getting into Western Philosophy”:
LHASA, TIBET—Deng Hsu, 14, said Monday that he is “totally getting into Western philosophy.” “I’ve been reading a lot of Kant, Descartes, and Hegel, and it’s blowing my mind,” Hsu said. “It’s so exotic and exciting, not like all that Buddhist ‘being is desire and desire is suffering’ shit my parents have been cramming down my throat all my life. Most of the kids in my school have never even heard of Hume’s views on objectivity or Locke’s tabula rasa.” Hsu said he hopes to one day make an exodus to north London to visit the birthplace of John Stuart Mill.
You don’t actually have to go to Manhattan to read The Onion.
The one-liner version is (spoken with an Indian accent): “My parents named me Apu, but my spiritual name is Frank Anderson.”
Philip, I am not surprised by this news, because people can use Internet to know and to learn in anywhere,of course, including Tibetan. This is a terrific revolutiom that bring a new world to everybody. I will say “thank you, programmers, you did a great job, you need to know other truth that people can’t live with out you, you should be proud of yourself.”
And that, Li, is why ‘The Onion’ is a beautiful thing 🙂
If only we all read Nietzsche… but then again we did (we just don’t realize it). We’ve created this postmodern society, that trusts no one, deconstructs everything, and believes in nothing but his own agenda. We just don’t call it nihilism anymore. Capatilism sounds so much better to the neophilosophers.
Does Li know that The Onion is fake? I read about a Chinese Newspaper that ripped off an Onion story [about the US Congress walking out in protest over poor offices] translated it into Mandarin, and printed it as fact, taking credit for the Onion’s fake story.
Michael, I didn’t read any Chinese Newspaper, but I knew something from NBC news, they told about flu shot for the US congressmen or senators, I felt shame on them; I think these government officials need to go to the Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial to learn again, Maybe my son (7) can teach them (this is a joke), because he just came back home from there, he learnt a lot; he is so silly, he said he wants to go to study in Harvard University’s Law School when he grows up, because his dream is being an American President, he wants to make new law to protect baby’s animals. What can I say? I hope the onion is not fake, I hope God still blesses American, I hope the new President ( W or K, either way) can learn something from the passed and will has enough wisdom to clean up the big mess, I hope Americans learn about how to respect other country and people, then will win them to return respect again; Anyway I hope my son be proud of himself for being American forever; American still is a great courtry in the whole world, that is reason why we are here.
Li,
The us senate has been referred to as “the most exclusive club in the world” and most us house members would hope to join the senate… um… someday. As such, I would literally choke on my own tongue if they did NOT give themselves the flu shot (and every other available medical convenience) before passing it on to other americans.
Maybe this is a good thing (wouldn’t want them to make a mistake on an important vote because they were feverish), but I would like to think that we are all still ‘common people’ in america.
As far as ‘The Onion’ goes, it is _subtle_ parody. I hope that you do not find this insulting, but it is designed to appear to be real while making a lot of quiet jokes to it’s audience. American’s that live in countries that practice censorship (like the arab emirates) really love it because the locals do not understand the humor and let it pass through un-censored as news.
I wish your son all of the luck in the world and you the best of luck as well.
Gary, thank you. I am not a critic and politician, I am tired of talking about politics; You are right, we are all still “common people”and have “little voice”.Why did nobody talk about Boston Red Sox here, it is more interesting to me.
Li
Li,
Apparently the only interesting thing happening in Boston right now is the lack of bargain in mini-vans…
Maybe Philip will give us an update on the MIT football team’s homecoming also…
Gary, I forgot that other thing is interesting to me, Why is Boston’s lobster more tasty than south CA’s?
The thing is, Tibetan and Buddhist philosophy calls for *practice*. It is not enouth to classify and intelectually comprehend things. There is great importance in changing one’s life in accordance with the practice, surrendering to it, thus transforming into another human being.
The fact that the philosophy behind this practice is not overly complex is a good thing.
In my book, philosophy which does not lead to practice and transformation is mental masturbation (“…blowing my mind”).
Regards
— Andre in LA
Andre, I hardly agree with your opinion. I don’t understand why you think that people want to practice and transform into another human being. How do you think about Rainbow? It is amazing and beautiful, isn’t it? Can you imagine what it would
look like if it only contains 1 color, 2 colors or 3 colors? Can you say that it is still as beautiful as than before? Samething for our Universe.
I initially took the log entry seriously (my thoughts were “Ah yes, The Onion, strange name for a paper”), but I realised that this was the satirical site I used to read. The Onion seems to be falling into obscurity?