Articles about Social Commentary

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

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

 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

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

from Back to Godhead, May-June 1991   “We’ve got a real kshatriya for a president!” an American Krishna devotee said to me, his face beaming. The Allies were trouncing whatever was left of the Iraqi armies, and George Bush was making it clear the Allies would keep striking till the Iraqis utterly surrendered. My devotee friend knew, of course, that George Bush could hardly match the valor and nobility of true kshatriyas like King Yudhisthira and King Pariksit. Still, Bush and his allies had waged a splendid war. Power, skill, drive, heroism—these are attributes of the … [Read more...] about Toward an Enlightened New World Order

from Back to Godhead, September-October 1997   So now we’re headed for Mars. Forget the moon. Mars is the place to go. But why? Hey, we’re exploring, we’re questing for knowledge, we’re searching for signs of life out there. It’s science—get it? So every twenty-six months between now and the year 2005 we’re going to send machines up there. And 2012 is the target date for landing the first man on Mars. But I have a question: What happened to the moon? When I was a kid, back in the sixties, the place to go was the moon. It was the same story: We were exploring, we … [Read more...] about Mars Bars: Why Mars? Why Indeed?

from Back to Godhead, January-February 1997   The people who’ve served cow flesh to billions, beneath golden arches around the world, have now come to the land where the cow is sacred. And they’re being ever so careful to be Indian. No Big Macs here, no indeed. No cow flesh, no pig fat, lest Hindus or Muslims be offended. In India, it’s the Maharaja Mac. The menu is full of veggies spiced just for the Indian palate, and the slaughter of choice is chickens and sheep. And trendy Indians, it seems, are lining up to swallow it. When the doors opened in Delhi in early October, … [Read more...] about Arch Enemy: Mc-Cow-Killer Comes to India