How to Win the Culture War: A Christian Battle Plan for a Society in Crisis

[Guest guest]

How to Win the Culture War: A

Christian Battle Plan for a Society in

Crisis

by Peter Kreeft

 

List Price:

$11.00

Price:

$8.80 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping

on orders over $25. See details.

You Save:

$2.20 (20%)

 

Availability: Usually ships

within 24 hours

 

 

Used & new from $7.89

 

Edition: Paperback

 

See more product details

 

Great Buy

 

Buy this book with Three Approaches to Abortion by Peter Kreeft today!

Buy Together Today: $18.75

 

 

Customers who bought this book also bought:

 

The Right Questions: Truth, Meaning & Public Debate by Phillip E.

Johnson, Nancy Pearcey (Hardcover)

Philosophy 101 by Socrates: An Introduction to Philosophy Via Plato's

Apology by Peter Kreeft (Paperback)

Socrates Meets Jesus: History's Greatest Questioner Confronts the Claims

of Christ by Peter Kreeft (Paperback)

A Refutation of Moral Relativism: Interviews With an Absolutist by Peter

Kreeft (Paperback)

Moral Darwinism: How We Became Hedonists by Benjamin Wiker, William

Dembski (Paperback)

 

Explore similar items

 

 

Product Details

 

Paperback: 120 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.39 x 8.24 x 5.45

Publisher: Intervarsity Press; (June 2002)

ISBN: 0830823166

Average Customer Review: Based on 4 reviews. Write a review.

Amazon.com Sales Rank: 20,179

 

 

 

Our Customers' Advice

See what customers recommend in addition to, or instead of, the product on

this page.

Recommend an item!

 

1 person recommended The Man Who Was Thursday (20Th-Century

Classics) in addition to How to Win the Culture War: A Christian Battle Plan for

a Society in Crisis

 

See more customer buying advice

 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

We're at war and we don't even know it, claims Kreeft, a philosophy professor at

Boston College and a popular Christian writer. He describes the state of modern

society and calls Christians back to a more biblical view of the world, pointing to the

reality of evil spiritual beings, the existence of sin and the importance of recognizing the

results of cultural pressure. He also has a fascinating argument concerning the central

role of sexuality in the current "culture wars." Unfortunately, many readers will be

driven off by Kreeft's snide, caustic tone. For example, he describes those who

embrace the New Age movement as people "who always seemed to be flighty, flaky

and female, at least in spirit." Moreover, while Kreeft frequently refers very positively

to ecumenism, his perspective is much more Roman Catholic than reflective of the

wider Christian audience he seeks to reach. Many readers will not agree that, for

example, contraception should be categorized together with "sodomy, fornication and

prostitution" as "clear and obvious sins." Kreeft's venture into the "Screwtape" idiom of

C.S. Lewis makes for very interesting reading, though here, again, the assumption that

the Protestant Reformation was a particularly successful attack by Satan will jar many.

Kreeft ends the book with a call to sainthood, exhorting Christians to genuinely live out

the goodness made available to them by the grace of God, and a stirring affirmation

that goodness will indeed triumph over evil.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

 

Book Description

The battle lines have been drawn. Many Christians have fallen into the trap of

proclaiming "Peace! Peace!" when there is no peace. Hiding their eyes from the

pressing issues of the day, they believe that resistance to the prevailing culture is

useless. At the same time, other Christians have been too quick to declare war,

mistaking battlefield casualties as enemies rather than victims.

 

In How to Win the Culture War Peter Kreeft issues a rousing call to arms. Christians

must understand the true... read more

 

See all editorial reviews...

 

 

Customer Reviews

Avg. Customer Review:

Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.

 

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

 

Feisty but Necessary, November 18, 2002

Reviewer: Bill Muehlenberg (see more about me) from Melbourne

Australia

 

Peter Kreeft is a respected philosophy professor at Boston College. He has written

many influential books, and is in many ways a Catholic version of C.S. Lewis. That is,

he is an indefatigable apologist for the Christian faith in an increasingly hostile and

secular environment.

 

In his newest book, Kreeft engages in a forceful, almost emotional, assault on the

cultural decline everywhere apparent in the West. In many ways this is a more popular

and polemic approach than is found in his previous books, However, given the urgency

and importance of the matter, he may be right to use such an approach.

 

He wastes no time in laying out his brief. We are at war, he argues, The soul of the

West is being fought over, and it doesn't look good for our side. But knowing that we

are at war is the first prerequisite for winning it. As such, we need to enter into a

wartime consciousness, and get our priorities right. We need to give up our trivial

pursuits and get involved in this life or death struggle.

 

Of course Kreeft realises that this is not just a battle against flesh and blood (or

governments and cultures). It is ultimately a spiritual battle, and the most effective

weapon is saints - believers who have decided to represent Christ fully in a dark and

ungodly age. And saints always go into the "moral ghettos", be they Moses or Christ.

"Saints are society's white corpuscles, society's saviors" he says. "If nobody wants to

crucify you, you're not doing your job. Or else your job isn't his work."

 

Thus the fight is ultimately about which will prevail: secularism or faith. Kreeft argues

that secularism is a doomed philosophy, and that no secular society has survived for

more than 72 years (the former USSR being our best test case to date). Indeed,

Western societies seem to have contracted "moral AIDS". We are self-destructing

quickly, and the only hope is to reclaim a spiritual and moral vision for the West.

 

While the battle is ultimately spiritual, it does manifest itself in society and culture. And

secular ideas and values are penetrating the West with horrific results. Cultural and

intellectual poison is steadily destroying our culture. As Kreeft remarks, the most

powerful forces in the West today are not church and state but Hollywood and

Harvard. Popular culture and academia have been setting the agenda, while the faithful

have been marginalised.

 

But it is time to reclaim lost territory, argues Kreeft. And forget about those who argue

we are just trying to turn back the clock: "You can turn a clock back, both literally and

figuratively. And you'd better, if the clock is keeping bad time."

 

We need to re-proclaim values and absolutes in a society that despises both. And we

need to go even further, and reclaim conscience. Relativism, the new tolerance, the

sexual revolution, and moral apathy have all combined to kill conscience.

 

And this can only lead to worse consequences. As Charles Colson has shown, the

only two means we have to prevent community from sliding into chaos are cops and

conscience. And when conscience is destroyed, that leaves only cops to stem the tide.

A police state becomes the inevitable outcome. Thus our moral relativism is leading us

in a dangerous direction.

 

Many defenders of democracy have noted this tension. For a democracy to work

properly, a strong moral populace is needed. Yet a democracy tends to produce moral

permissiveness, undermining its very foundations. Thus less conscience results in more

cops, leading to the end of democracy.

 

This is the dilemma or paradox of democracy. And history offers us many examples of

how this works out in a society. The longest-lasting societies have been the most

moralistic, be they Jewish, Confucian, Islamic or Roman. Our recent secular societies

however appear to be rather short-lived, whether fascist or Marxist.

 

The sexual revolution is perhaps the most important component of cultural decline.

Kreeft argues that we cannot win the culture war unless we win the sex war, because

"sex is the effective religion of our culture". This includes the whole array of battle

fronts: pornography, homosexuality, easy divorce and abortion.

 

And to the extent that the church has also compromised in these areas, the culture war

will be even more difficult to fight. Yet fight we must. We are called, not to live an easy

life, but to take up our cross and follow our Master. The battle can be won, but only if

we take our calling seriously and get involved. This book is a timely reminder to do just

that.

 

Was this review helpful to you?

 

 

4 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

 

Significant Value Beneath the Presentation, November 10, 2002

 

Reviewer: ecwh from Charlotte, NC USA

 

This book is not well written, the arguments are not well presented, and the empirical

groundings are often inaccurate. However, Peter Kreeft's gift is that of wisdom. If you

can get past the surface deficiencies of this book, you will find significant value in the

concepts he is attempting to convey.

 

Was this review helpful to you?

 

 

6 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

 

Publishers Weekly has it all wrong, as usual, October 10, 2002

Reviewer: tj06man (see more about me) from Pittsburgh, PA USA

 

This book is vintage Kreeft: hard-hitting, direct and truthful.

The bottom line of the subject demands such an approach. Some see this as snide? If

being snide is being slyly disparaging to make ones point there its appropriate. Why

must an author sugar coat his ideas? The cricism Kreeft lays at the feet of New Agers

is well founded ... If you've enjoyed any of Kreeft's books, then, by all means, toss

asside the misplaced Publishers Weekly review and curl up with this book, its a

keeper!

 

Was this review helpful to you?

 

 

5 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

 

A magnificent book!, July 14, 2002

Reviewer: questing (see more about me) from St. Petersburg, Fl. USA

 

I have read almost all of Peter Kreeft's books and this one is the most hard-hitting and

direct. He "tells it like it is" in no uncertain terms - common sense prevails! How

refreshing! The last chapters are beautiful - anyone who can read them and not rush to

rededicate themselves to a life of holiness and who can't feel the surge of hope for

winning the battle must have sadly succumbed to the worst of modern culture.

[Guest guest]

Books are good but

one cannot practice bhakti without the living guru (spiritual teacher).Why? Because

Bhakti is a vriti (function ) of the

svarupa shakti (the spiritual energy of the Lord).

Bhakti cannot manifest

in the body,

mind

and senses

of baddha (conditioned) jiva (soul)

which are unconscious.

 

Through the mercy of sad guru (the spiritual realized spiritual teacher, who has seen the Highest Personality of Godhead face to face, by the power of his loving devotion obtained by the mercy of his own spiritual teacher)

bhakti-vriti (the function of loving devotion) obtains

tad-atma with the material body and senses and acts through them.

 

Here is a material example for understanding tad-atma.

By long contact of iron with fire,

the fire obtains "tad-atma"with the iron

and so the fire acts through the iron.

 

Bhakti is a vriti (function ) of the

svarupa shakti (the spiritual energy of the Lord).

Bhakti cannot manifest

in the body,

mind

and senses

of baddha (conditioned) jiva (soul)

which are unconscious.

 

One needs a living spiritual teacher.

But the kind of spiritual teacher that one gets is according to his previous eternal pious deeds (which are not under the jurisdiction of karma).

These spiritual pious deeds are called sukriti.

 

Sometimes by the mercy of the realized spiritual teacher (sad-guru) even the most unqualified people are accepted as disciples.

 

[Guest guest]

is pope pissed of by Hk's

that he has devised a battle plan

and some one wants to make money by selling

the battle plan books not to the xians but to the HK's?

 

 

[Priitaa]

one cannot practice bhakti without the living guru (spiritual teacher).

 

Funny, I never knew Prabhupada was "dead."

 

While I respect anyones choice of guru, let's not start 'indicating' Prabhupada is a dead guru.

 

YS,

Prtha dd

[Guest guest]

 

believe it or not, this is a continuation of..

yes...nobody expected the spanish inquisition !!

 

In the old world the inquisition (now called 'the congregation for the doctrine of faith') would either

torture, kill, fine, or force the offender

to leave his possessions and flee.

 

nowadays they are more subtle.

 

For instance in the late 1700's and 1800's when the

enlightenment and rational philosophy ,and eastern thought was all the rage

among the aristocracy,artists and scientists,

the many varied conspiracy theories so popular today

among the gullible have as their basis church

propaganda meant to demonize the aristocracies interest in

eastern religions, and other hermetic and gnostic

philosophies, creating todays conspiracy theories

of satanic or luciferian cults based on

so called New Age ideas.

 

This continues today as the church is fearfull

of losing wealthy contributers to 'new age'

and eastern religious thought.

 

nobody expected the spanish inquisition...

 

[Priitaa]

IMHO we should worry less about politics and more about going out on Hari Nama. In the 1970's Prabhupada said we stopped WW III from starting merely by going out on Hari Nama Sankirtana! He said we did this twice! Jai! Let us not look toward material or political ways to stop war, or fix the world. Let us understand the potency of the Holy Names and start sharing them with others! Haribol! :-)

 

YS,

Prtha dd

[Guest guest]

here or on other forums people argue against each other very strongly.

 

so why not show a demo by chanting

and show if you can make them agree and destroy disagreement?

 

if you succeed, we would belive chanting will stop future wars.

 

krishna did not say "chant and avoid war."

we had mahabharata war.

 

if you chant without doing anything else to protect your freedom and religious infrastructure,

it would make so much easy fot the terrorists

to finish you. is it still unknown that they cannot stand any other religion than allah's?

 

jai radhe!

 

 

[Guest guest]

So you are saying we must "prove" what Prabhupada told us will work.

 

YS,

Prtha dd

[Priitaa]

>>here or on other forums people argue against each other very strongly.<<

 

So you advocate that? It's nonsense to argue when we have the highest science.

 

>>so why not show a demo by chanting and show if you can make them agree and destroy disagreement?<<

 

You are just trying to draw me into that fight. Apparently we did not show it to you good enough when we stopped WW III under Prabhupada's instructions in the 70's, so to give another demo, you still would not believe and is not really what you want acomplish here. What you want to do is debate.

 

In addition, the answer to your question is that I am not here to prove a thing, that is not my job, that is guru's job, but first you must take shelter and surrender cent per cent to a bona fide guru. Also in answer, I do not take pleasure in arguing, I do not feel we as devotees should waste our time in bickering or solving political problems from a materialistic viewpoint. If you need proof for this, then my question to you is, are you an initiated devotee? If so, by whom?

 

>>if you succeed, we would belive chanting will stop future wars.<<

 

Again, that has all ready been done and you reject it. And again, that is not my job. Read Prabhupada's books to gain in faith, read *submissively.*

 

>>krishna did not say "chant and avoid war."<

 

I was under the impression you all ready understood our teachings and so saw no need to get into deails, but apparently you have some ideas of your own. Maybe Hinudu?

 

>>we had mahabharata war.<<

 

And Krishna tried every peaceful way first before going to war. Plus, we should not immitate transcendental "pastimes," using them as an excuse to go into mundane war because these great souls who partook in that pastime were in a battle.

 

>>if you chant without doing anything else to protect your freedom <<

 

I dont know about you, but I joined the Hare Krishna movement. (Did you?) And with that, I beacme a nun, dedicated to that path, the only way toward 'real' freedom. All other types are illuson. For those who are not so dedicated, then let them do what they feel they need to do.

 

>>and religious infrastructure, it would make so much easy fot the terrorists to finish you.<

 

I wonder if you found shock commentary to get you a lot of attention and fast replies in the past, and so you are using one on me now.

 

Anyway, sounds like you are absorbed in terroism katha and fears.

 

> is it still unknown that they cannot stand any other religion than allah's?<<

 

Prabhupada said for those who do not chant Hare Krishna, let them chant Jesus, Allah, etc. We are not anti-muslim, are not anti-christian, not anti any bona fide religion. Again, are you Hindu?

 

YS,

Prtha dd

[Guest guest]

Temple attacked in US

 

By George Joseph in New York

Saturday, March 1, 2003

 

The police and FBI are at a loss why a fire bomb was

thrown at the Hindu temple in St Louis, Missouri, on the

night of February 22. "It seemed to be a crude bomb or

Molotov cocktail, which set fire to the front door of the

temple," Krishna Reddy, president of the temple trustee

board, said.

 

The police have registered a hate crime case, officials

said. The fire quickly burned itself out, charring a

four-foot section of the door.

 

The attack happened after midnight, Reddy thinks. Temple

officials discovered the attack when they arrived to open

the shrine the next morning.

 

"There are four priests living in the compound a little

behind the temple. They did not hear anything that

night," Reddy said.

 

"We are getting a lot of support from the police, FBI and

other officials. There is no panic in the community,"

Jiwan Singla, chairman of the temple building committee,

said.

 

"Everything is normal, but we are increasing security,"

he said.

 

There was no threat to the temple, police said. The

temple has no dispute with anyone, Reddy noted. There was

an attack on statues in front of the temple two years

ago, he said. Vandals cut parts of the statues, which

were replaced later.

 

After that incident, security cameras were installed

inside the temple. "Now we are installing security

cameras outside the temple," Reddy said.

 

Established 13 years ago, it is one of the largest

temples in the US serving more than 8,000 families. Lord

Venkatesa is the principal deity.

 

"Maybe it's just kids, I don't know, but what they did is

serious and it could have been worse," Reddy said. "We

certainly hope they don't come back."

 

Maha Shivratri celebrations are scheduled for March 1.

"The attack has not changed anything," Singla noted. All

the activities will go on as scheduled, he said.

[Priitaa]

Guest, who does not sign a name, you are in the wrong forum. You insist on seeing this with material eyes, so please consider goint to the "World Review" forum.

 

YS,

Prtha dd

[Guest guest]

"So you are saying we must "prove" what Prabhupada told us will work."

 

is it hard to prove that chanting will stop a war?

if not why not prove it?

 

chant on a forum and see if two arguing parties would suddenly become friends.

 

chant at the border of pakistan

and show that india and pak become friends.

 

chant at iraq and see if sadaam husain suddenly becomes a democratic.

 

chant in mid east and show that israel and palestianans become friends.

 

chant at a cock fight and show that the cocks become friends.

 

i know what chanting does, but stop a WW?

need some proof, experimental, verifiable.

 

even arjun, after hearing krihsna, said

i belive what you say,

but i want to see your that universal form.

he wanted proof.

 

so krishna and their devotees prove when they can.

 

jai radhe!

 

[Priitaa]

There is a certain type of mental sense gratifcation where one takes great pleasure in aruging, especially about spirutal life.

 

And an additional type of mental sense gratifcation where one takes pleasure in rebellion of pure instruction given by Jagat guru, who it certainly appears you do not accept as your guru.

 

One must approach the spiritual master in a *humble* state of mind, not an argumentative one. Until that point, all the evidence in the three worlds will not suffice, and one remains deaf.

 

Good luck!

 

YS,

Prtha dd

[Guest guest]

What is the meaning of a living guru?

 

A Vaisnava never dies.

What is the meaning?

We were once with Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja Prabhupada in the court of Sri Sri Radha Damodara Temple and somebody asked pointing on the Rupa Gosvam’s samadhi place,

“What is here?” Gurudeva said “Nothing”. Srila Rupa Gosvami is still in Braja and he is doing his bhajana and writing his books. Only that the conditioned souls cannot see him.

 

A such liberated devotee is always living in the nitya lila of the Lord.

He also appears in the naimitika lila (not temporay but occasionally pastimes of the Lord) to attract the conditioned jiva to the transcendental loving devotional service to the Lord.

 

How is he doing this?

Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says:

The way to bhakti is the way of shabdha brahma (transcendental sound)

"adau guru mukhat shravant"

Srila Vishvanatha Cakravarti Thakura explained in the purport of this verse:

"Srimad Bhagavata 3.9.11. (Asse zrutekSita-patho nanu nAtha puMsAm)

that

the path to Krsna can be seen through the ears and

that hearing must be done from the mouth of sat guru.

Question:

If the path is transcendental

why do you limit it by physical association?

Answer:

Because it is transcendental therefore

any transcendetal thing oh,

comes from transcendental source;

like the sound of harinama, the sounds of diksa mantras are transcendental

the sound of hari katha is transcendental

the sound of srimad bhagavatam is transcendental,

so transcendental things come from transcendental source.

So, everything in THIS world is material!

So, where it will come from?

Only when any realized person descends in this world

and is caring bhakti-shakti with them,

than you can receive what is transcendental.

 

When a pure devotee speaks, mixed within his voice

are the safron particle of the lotus feet of Krsna,

says Srimad Bhagavatam;

so,

sound has 4 dimensions:

vaikarik, madya, para, pashianti.

First dimension is the outer portion of the sound, what you speak, what you hear, and what is going in your tape recorder.

Next two levels are on the subtle platform of the mind and intelligence.

The fourth level is called shabda-brahma

and goes from soul to soul."

 

The transcendental sound can be uttered by the realized soul and imbibe the audiance

with seva vasana

(the seed of the desire to serve the DIVINE COUPLE- if the one that utters the sound is a RUPA-ANUGA.)

 

So if someone wants that his (her) bhakti lata bija will grow, give the six leaves and fruits for the Divine Couple, one should take shelter by a sat guru, a pure devotee, to take diksha, and further bhajan shiksa.

 

But according to one’s sukriti, that association will take place in a higher or lesser degree, or in no degree.

bhaktis tu bhagavad bhakta

sangena parijayate

SAT-SANGA prapyate pumbhih

SUKRITI purva sancite

 

The inclination for bhakti is awakened

by the association with the devottes of the Lord

And the association with the pure devotees

(SAT SANGA) can be attained by the accumulated effect of SUKRITI (eternal pious activities) performed over uncountable many life times.

(Brihan Naradia Purana 4.33)

 

All glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga.

 

 

 

 

 

[anadi]

Previous post by anadi krsna dasa anu dasa

[Guest guest]

"It reasons ill to say that Vashnavas die, when thou art living still in sound.

 

The Vashnavas die to live, and in living spread the Holy Name around."

 

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada never dies but lives forever in his books! Ki Jai!

[anadi]

The materialist have no idea about the transcendental books, transcendental personalities , transcendental sound (shabda brahma), and their relation.

When one conditioned soul reads a book loud the sound is vaikarik (the outer portion of the sound) and when he reads the book in the mind the sound is on the level of the mind and intelligence.

One can understand somehow something from the holy books, get some good impressions in the heart (samskaras), and one should study the holy books but how?

Under guru padashraya (under the guidance of the bona fide - sat guru) otherwise one is a pretender.

Only a sat guru, a pure vaisnava is giving the transcendental sound.

 

 

THE MATERIALISTS SAY ABOUT THEIR WORSHIPABLE PERSONALITIES

THAT THEY LIVE IN THEIR BOOKS.

 

<font color="red"> The vaisnavas live not in their book forever </font color>

THEY NEVER DIED.

 

The materialists don't understand the transcendentalist conception that the vaishnavas have no material body. Only by the arrangements of yoga maya it seems that they grow old, get ill and die.

 

On the other hand we learn that the holy book is transcendental. Yes.

Only that one needs the transcendental player to get the transcendental sounds out of it.

 

All glories to the merciful guru and gauranga!

 

All glories to the maha purush A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who successfully spread rupa-anuga bhakti in the western countries, and inspired my gurudeva Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja to continue this mission.

 

 

[Guest guest]

Getting into guru wars. Aint that fun?! LOL

[Guest guest]

Dangerous recycling said to be poisoning India

By Terry Friel

Reuters---

Friday, September 06, 2002

 

NEW DELHI Indians are shying away from World Trade Center scrap steel

shipped to the country to be recycled, afraid its history makes it

inauspicious.

 

But it may be more than that it may be lethal. The potential dangers of

the Trade Center scrap, which environmental groups say is contaminated,

highlight a poisonous paradox confronting the world's largest recycler:

recycling is not always good.

 

Critics say India has become the developed world's dumping ground, rapidly

poisoning itself and its 1 billion-plus people with toxins from both the

waste and the pollution from the sometimes dangerous methods used to

recycle it. Every year, India imports millions of tons of plastic, steel,

other metals, and discarded computers to break down and reuse, often with

unskilled workers ignorant of the risks.

 

The world's second-most populous country combines low wages, lax

environmental laws, and a huge domestic market for the recycled products,

says Suneel Pandey, a researcher with the industry-funded Tata Research

Energy Institute.

 

"Environmental regulations are really not there," he says. "There are no

rules."

 

There is no reliable data either, which makes measuring and regulating the

sector almost impossible, say industry officials, researchers, and

environmentalists alike.

 

WTC SCRAP

 

About 70,000 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center was shipped to

India before it was stopped by objections from environmentalists and

unions, says Greenpeace India. Greenpeace says the scrap is contaminated by

asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls, PCBs, plastics, and the lead, mercury,

and other contaminants in the computers and fittings inside the twin towers

destroyed on Sept. 11 last year.

 

A preliminary study in India found no toxins, but Greenpeace and other

environmental groups question the study's accuracy. Regardless, Indian

scrap dealers are now having trouble selling the WTC steel for other reasons.

 

"People are having some reservations. It's a sentimental matter," said O.P.

Bajpai, an adviser to the Indian Steel Alliance lobby group. "In India,

it's a matter of belief," he said, refusing to comment on other issues

about the WTC scrap.

 

Recycling employs millions of Indians, many at the bottom of society who

would have difficulty finding other jobs, and turns millions of tons of

domestic waste into useful material.

 

But industry and environmental groups also share concerns that much of the

recycling is actually "downcycling" turning out a product of much lower

quality than the original.

 

"It is not happening because people are environmentally conscious," says

K.P. Nyati, environmental management head for the Confederation of Indian

Industry, the peak industry group. "It's happening because it makes

economic sense. It's profitable. Recycling is a nice term, but essentially

it's downcycling you lose quality." He said the confederation was working

with industry to improve the recycling sector to lift quality and cut

pollution.

 

"We are aware of the problems, and we are trying to do something about it.

We need to turn environmental threats into economic opportunities," he said.

 

Part of the solution is for industry to think of recycling as part of the

production process, using materials that are easy and clean to recycle and

which minimize or reduce quality.

 

Greenpeace, for its part, wants the industry turned around, with

waste-producers paying for disposal to make better and safer methods

economical.

 

"The people who created the waste should pay for the waste," says

Greenpeace head G. Ananthapadmanabhan. "There really is no money in the

system for state of the art [technology]."

 

"I don't think, given the environmental standards in the developed world

... this could be done at home." But large and medium scale industrial

recycling accounts for less than half India's total recycling.

 

The rest is done through kabadiwallahs, celebrated by the India Today

newsweekly last month as "one of the world's most efficient and low-key

systems," in declaring it one of the 55 top achievements of India's 55

years of independence.

 

Kabadiwallahs are India's army of worker ants men, women, and children

who stream out of their cardboard slums each dawn to scour the gutters and

streets for useful trash, from foil medicine packets to rags, plastic bags,

glass, and iron.

 

The trash is brought back to the slum where, among huts made of cardboard

and plastic sheeting and lanes lined by black rivulets of sewage, it is

sorted, weighed, and packed to await buyers from recycling factories.

 

DIRTY AND DANGEROUS

 

The work is hard, dirty, and dangerous, but in a country with one of the

world's highest rates of poverty it pays better than some other menial

jobs, such as operating a rickshaw.

 

"There are lots of dangers," says Mohammed Babul Sheikh. "We fall sick very

often. We get skin rashes, fever. But, then, we are poor what difference

does it make?"

 

Like many kabadiwallahs in New Delhi's Mehrauli, Sheikh, who thinks his age

is about 42 or 45, fled Bangladesh then East Pakistan as a child after

the 1971 India-Pakistan war.

 

But he is one of the luckier kabadiwallahs. He runs one of the Muslim

slum's 29 warehouses, a grand term for basically a patch of open space, a

crude tripod scale, and a storage hut.

 

On rainy days during the monsoon, he brings bags of his more valuable

trash, such as rags, into his single-room, double-bed sized shanty to

shelter with his wife and three children.

 

Sheikh has five people working for him, his 8-year-old son among them. They

leave the slum about 4 or 5 a.m. and collect about a ton of 53 different

kinds of waste materials, from plastic to bottles to iron and rags.

 

His profit is between $2 and $2.50 a day.

 

"The money is better here," says the former rickshaw puller. "I have no

regrets." But he worries his children are doomed to the same fate.

 

"I am a parent. Which parent doesn't have good expectations for his

children? But what can we do? There is no other way."

 

[Guest guest]

way of avoiding a strignt answer.

 

within Hare Krishnas there are several groups like iskcon, anti iskcon, siksha guru, diksha guru, some even hate gbc, etc.

 

has any of these groups suceeded in establishing peace between them by chanting?

 

pratyaksha, pramana, vignaya is important in the vedic society. so, it should be good to experiment it, and show the result to the world that chanting makes opposing parties agree to each other.

 

One proved scietifically, it could make millions of dollars which could be used to spread KC.

 

i have no doubt that chanting is a great thing to do.

but I would like you to prove the claim made here that

it will make peace between parties in strife.

 

let me know when any of you claimers start the experiment.

I would also chant when you do. i want the experiment to succeed. then please let the world know the result.

 

there is no need to keep any general truth hidden.

why say "have faith" when it is easy to prove beyond any doubt?

 

jai sri prabhupada!