from Back to Godhead, August-September 1992 [On April 29, 1992, a mostly white jury acquitted four Los Angeles police officers accused in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. Thousands of people in Los Angeles, mainly young black and Latino males, joined in a “race riot,” with mass law-breaking, including looting, arson and murder. Fifty to sixty people were killed during the riots.] I left Los Angeles early on the morning of the riots. My departure was coincidental. I’d stayed in L.A. for two days, and now I was off to a meeting in Denver. So I missed … [Read more...] about Fighting in the Smog
Giving My Life for Noble Bilge
from Back to Godhead, May 1989 Lima, Peru: Several feet overhead against a gray-and-white marble wall on the departures side of the Jorge Chavez International Airport, foot-high black letters, all capitals, announce. “TENGO EL ORGULLO DE SER PERUANO.” That is, “I have the pride of being Peruvian.” Well, for crying out loud. what is there to be so proud of? I have the pride of belonging to a two-bit Latin American nation whose empire got wiped out four centuries ago. Now really! And why should I be so proud to be Peruvian rather than, say, Argentinean, or Chilean, or Colombian, … [Read more...] about Giving My Life for Noble Bilge
History and the Machinery of War
from Back to Godhead, January-February 1991 America and her allies have plunged into war with Iraq. As you read these words, the war may well be over, and the land of the Tigris and Euphrates, the ancient “cradle of civilization,” may by now be a bombed-out graveyard. In the newspapers, words blow around like sand in a Middle Eastern desert. Saddam Hussein is “a madman,” America “can’t tolerate aggression,” the “international community” demands that “the sovereignty of Kuwait” be restored. Meanwhile—more sand—Iraq calls for “peace, stability, and security in the … [Read more...] about History and the Machinery of War
How Much Are You Worth?
from Back to Godhead, Vol 13, # 11, 1978 “Thanks to inflation,” says a recent release from the Associated Press, “you are now worth 5½ times more than you were just a few years ago. “The calcium, magnesium, iron and other chemicals in an adult’s body were worth 98 cents in the early part of this decade; now they’re worth $5.60, according to Dr. Harry Monsen, a professor of anatomy at Illinois College of Medicine. ‘And the price will keep going up, just like it’s doing with cadavers and skeletons,’ he said. ‘We are caught in the inflation spiral.’ ” What we are caught … [Read more...] about How Much Are You Worth?
The Plague
from Back to Godhead, January-February 1995 The very word plague brings dread. We recall medieval images of the Black Death, scourging fourteenth-century Asia and Europe. We envision rampant rats and dying children. Late in 1994, as plague broke out in the Indian state of Gujarat, people fled in the hundreds of thousands. Neighboring countries sealed their borders. Airlines cancelled flights. Even doctors grabbed their stethoscopes and scrambled for their lives. Now, of course, life is back to normal. The outbreak has been quelled. We’re no longer in the fourteenth … [Read more...] about The Plague
Moustaches and Moneybelts
from Back to Godhead, June 1989 In the ancient land of the Incas and the Aztecs, in the capital city of a country I’d rather not name, for many years an old man with a pushcart stood on the street outside our Hare Krishna temple selling bananas, oranges, apples, pineapples, and papayas. Now the fruits and the pushcart are gone, but the man is still there. And now he has a new occupation—changing dollars. He and nearly everyone else on the block. Roll down your car window. You’ll get the latest street-market exchange rate. And on the spot you can change your local money … [Read more...] about Moustaches and Moneybelts
Nothing that a Goat Won’t Eat
from Back to Godhead, March-April 1998 According to an Indian proverb, there’s nothing that a goat won’t eat and nothing that a madman won’t say. Madmen? Sometimes it seems like we’re living in a world of them, or at least a world of fools. The human impulse is to say something—anything. Something stupid, something contentious, something sweet, deceitful, smart, ridiculous, or empty. Big strings of words, amounting to nothing. It’s astonishing. Nearly as surprising: You can speak the most outrageous foolishness, and someone out there—most likely many someones—will for … [Read more...] about Nothing that a Goat Won’t Eat
The Taj Mahal: Enduring Monument to Love
from Back to Godhead, March-April 1997 In more than twenty-five years of coming to India, I'd never seen the Taj Mahal—never had a desire to or a reason to. But when my mother came on her first-ever trip to India, how could she go back home to America and say she hadn't seen the Taj Mahal? So I brought her. And I confess to being pleased with her when she found the Taj "rather a disappointment." At first view, it was "breathtaking," she said. But the closer you get, the less impressive it looks. Though it majestically fills a picture postcard, really the place is fairly … [Read more...] about The Taj Mahal: Enduring Monument to Love
The Evil Computer
from Back to Godhead, September-October 1995 Yes, I've got one. Use it all the time. And I’ve been close to them for more than twenty years, since the days when we first computerized our typesetting. They save lots of work, and make the impossible possible. But they’re dangerous, devilish machines, and we use them at our peril. I’m not talking about low-level radiation, or the computer’s role in weapons of mass destruction. What I have in mind is its role in mass distraction. Here I am with a short human lifetime, and somehow, by good fortune, I’ve discovered it’s … [Read more...] about The Evil Computer
The Myth of Old Age
from Back to Godhead, March-April 1995 Bradley Stinkbrain, 73, is in the prime of his life. . . and having the time of his life. Now, you can too! Thanks to the amazing, new "anti-aging" discoveries, enclosed. . . Not long ago, someone in our community passed along to me a magazine pitch she'd received in the mail. On the front of the oversize envelope, a headline announced—blue type on a bright green background—"Old Age Isn't Natural." And there, bursting with good health, shone Living Proof, our man Bradley, strong, relaxed, his smile radiant, his hair a rich grey crown, … [Read more...] about The Myth of Old Age
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