R a n o u s

Ok, I don’t typically do much on politics or current events here but lately there’s been something arise from the foul depths of both mainstream and social media that kinda pisses me off. It’s all this rubbish about the Dalai Lama being a pedophile, and the only evidence these morons can produce is an edited-to-see-it-our-way video with slanderous commentary.

As a former film school student, I can see the propagandization of this video from space. Here’s how that works:

1. Cut out everything before and after so the audience is left without context or perspective.
2. Add blur and further cuts so you can’t actually see what did or didn’t happen.
3. Remove the audio and put shocking music over it. Except for short soundbits that sound bad taken out of context.
4. Give it a shocking click-bait titles.
5. Keep looping the same little bit and say ‘look at the old guy keep pulling in the kid for hug after hug’
6. Go frame by frame until you find one where the kid might be making a face, blur it too, and then say ‘look at the kids reaction!’
7. Repeat the above until it looks like this went on for 15 minutes.
8. Bombard social media with somewhat different versions.
9. Get a script or pay monkeys to click like-share-salivate so it looks popular.

As someone who’s been a casual student of Buddhism since the 90’s, I can also say this:

1. The Dalai Lama is not a native English speaker nor is he intimately familiar with all Western nuances. Buddhism can be challenging to study as the language and meanings don’t always have a simple direct translation, and I’m pretty sure the reverse is true.
2. What’s perfectly normal in one society is faux pas in another. In America, people are not as touchy-feely as they are in other places. Doing so, particularly among men, is often misconstrued as homosexuality. If a non-related child is involved it’s assumed to be the worst. In other places, men can give & receive real hugs and there’s nothing more to it than a physical connection to reinforce a spiritual one. It’s only weird if you make it weird.
3. The Dalai Lama likes to clown around. I appreciate that levity can do much to ease a tense situation. I also know that some people have no sense of humor and are quick to interpret such actions as insulting. So knowing with whom, what, when & how to clown with comes back to that societal nuances thing.
4. The Dalai Lama is a big deal in India, Tibet, and anywhere Buddhism is popular. People want to connect with him, and that’s usually the case with spiritual leaders.

So I’m calling complete bullshit and slander on this one. To accuse anyone of such a thing requires evidence and what’s been shown doesn’t convince me. There’s probably a lot of other factors at play here as there’s always been those that feel threatened by the concepts of compassion and doing no harm. Perhaps it Conflicts with tHeIr busiNess plAns?

Haters gonna hate, we can’t change that although we can click unlike and rebuke. My main beef is with mainstream media sources. I think they owe us a follow up story based on facts and including the full context of the situation. In the long run, it’s their credibility more at stake than the Dalai Lama’s.

-Ken Ranous

keywords: Dalai Lama jokingly asks boy for kisses, media propaganda fecal storm upon thy fan, get your dumbasses informed