The Dharma Manifesto

by Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya

  Same-Sex Marriage

  “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”

  Will Durant (1885–1981)[16]

  For the procreation of the species, for the healthy nurturing of children, and for the sake of social health and cohesion, nature has ordained the marriage of one man and one woman — the only meaningful exceptions to this rule being of a purely historical nature.[17] In the history of the entire human race, there has never been any traditional culture that has recognized the “right” to same-sex marriage. The concept of same-sex marriage has been seen correctly throughout history and across cultures as an affront to nature’s laws, to God’s will, and to the health of human society. Same-sex marriage will remain and forever be illegal in a Dharma Nation.

  Pornography and Sexual Exploitation

  “The government’s duty is to see that everyone is actually religious and moral.”

  Prabhupada[18]

  Pornography is a visceral form of sexual abuse of both the participants and the viewers of said pornography. In addition to the visceral element, the pornography industry is more often than not also a source of very concrete abuse and monstrous exploitation toward those who work within it, as well as being linked directly to organized crime, pedophilia and the sex-slave trade. Under a Dharma government, the creation, distribution and ownership of pornography in every medium will be illegal and punishable by rigorous jail sentences. Finally, as previously stated, those found guilty of pedophilia will be subject to the death penalty.

  [1] “Firearms stand next in importance to the constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence. From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to ensure peace, security, and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable. The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference — they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.” — George Washington, in a speech to Congress, January 7, 1790.

  [2] Washington Post, September 24, 2012.

  [3] One of the earliest individuals most responsible for the disastrous degeneration of the public school system was the progressive thinker John Dewey (1859–1952).

  [4] "On Private Property and Modern Education," Illustrated London News, May 28, 1932.

  [5] Paul Carus, The Gospel of Buddha According to Old Records (Singapore: Carus Publishing, 2004), p. 191.

  [6] Hippocratic Writings (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1955).

  [7] According to research conducted by the American Psychological Association (April 6, 2012), an astounding 77% of Americans now report experiencing physical symptoms directly related to stress.

  [8] Education and Living, vol. 1 (Suffern, NY: School of Living, 1948), p. 550.

  [9] Misandry is the neurotic hatred of males.

  [10] Currently, the mainstream media represents the most pervasive and powerful organ of propagandistic brainwashing that the world has ever witnessed. While several decades ago most peopled still viewed the media as a source of neutral and unbiased information, the populace has slowly been awakened to the media’s actual nefarious purpose in incrementally altering people’s perceptions of reality. In a recent Gallup poll, for example, it was shown that 60% of Americans polled say they have “little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly.” (Gallup, Inc., September 21, 2012) In a September 2012 poll conducted by Public Policy Polling for Daily Kos and the SEIU, an amazing 78% said that they distrust political journalists. (Russia Today, September 21, 2012)

  [11] From Enoch Powell’s famous Birmingham Address on the dangers of mass immigration, delivered on April 20, 1968, otherwise known as the “Rivers of Blood” speech.

  [12] Time Magazine, September 13, 2004.

  [13] The Theory of Moral Sentiments (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 104.

  [14] The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats, vol. 3 (New York: Scribner, 1963), p. 41.

  [15] The Cunning Man: A Novel (New York: Viking, 1995), p. 390.

  [16] The Story of Civilization: Caesar and Christ (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1944), p. 665.

  [17] As in, for example, the historical cases of polygamy on the part of kings, and in the even rarer instances of polyandry found in a handful of cases in the history of South Asia.

  [18] A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Conversations with Srila Prabhupada, vol. 19 (Los Angeles: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1990), p. 337.

  Foreign Policy

  General Principles of Foreign Policy

  1. Non-intervention and non-aid to foreign governments

  The Dharma Nationalist foreign policy will be primarily centered upon a strategy of non-intervention in the affairs of other nations. The only possible exceptions to this general principle will be the potential extending of aid to newly-formed Dharmic governments in foreign lands. Our general policy of non-intervention includes the cessation of most military, economic and other forms of aid to the governments of foreign nations; avoiding all wars and military actions in foreign nations in which the express aim is not to save American lives that are directly placed in harm’s way; and the closing of many military bases currently on foreign soil, with all the troops and military personnel associated with these military facilities brought back to America to defend the actual homeland.[1] For example, all military facilities in Europe and Japan will be closed down immediately.

  2. Global Dharma Nationalist transformation

  Dharma Nationalism is an ideology geared for export. While we will not offer aid to foreign governments, we will offer fraternal aid in the form of moral, verbal, logistical, humanitarian, intelligence data and funding support to Dharma Nationalist movements in foreign nations. Dharma Nationalism seeks to build a new social order globally. Consequently, it recognizes that all peoples and cultures who adhere to the basic tenets of Dharma Nationalism must work together closely in mutual trust and support. Since the victory of a Dharma Nationalist global transformation in one part of the world is a victory for all Dharma Nationalists, it follows that each affiliated national movement must be prepared to give moral, financial or technical assistance, where possible, should a transformative situation emerge in any given nation. Narrow-minded parochialism in an age when the secular materialist ideology has wrought such moral and cultural destruction upon the entire world is a complete negation of everything we profess, and is thus vigorously rejected by Dharma Nationalism.

  The Three Nation Types

  The creation of the Marxist-inspired “Three Worlds Theory” was attributed to Mao Tse Tung (1893–1976), the tyrannical dictator of China,[2] and then quickly adopted by the media and the academic and geopolitical entities of the rest of the world. The Three Worlds Theory posited the notion that all the individual nation-states of the world could be categorized into the three geopolitical sectors of the First World (the superpowers), the Second World (the allies of the superpowers), and the Third World (the non-aligned nations).

  While this theory was first postulated in order to serve the interests of Cold War military and political strategy, the actual meanings of these terms were altered in time, with the industrial-economic conditions of nations becoming the main determining factor. Thus, today, First World nations are seen as the most industrially and economically advanced nations. Second World nations are those soon to become First World nations. And Third World nations are those nations that are viewed as industrially and economically backward.

  We reject the so-called Three Worlds Theory for the primary reason that such a categorization is based upon thoroughly wrong criteria. While the attempt to create a taxonomy of the nations of the world in order to b
etter comprehend the nature of our current geopolitical landscape is a very helpful tool, the criteria through which the Three Worlds Theory categorizes nations is based upon the false suppositions of progressivism, scientism, economic chauvinism, communal development and collective destiny.

  Rather than a categorizing formula based upon the unmeaningful criteria of economic development, the only effective criterion by which to judge a nation’s inherent status is by examining the present nature, worth and potential of the actual indigenous people of that nation, along with that people’s history, demeanor, genetic inheritance, virtues, and so on. Accordingly, Dharma Nation political theory has formulated an organic taxonomy of nations, rather than a merely economic one. This theory is termed the Three Nation Types, consisting of Primary Nations, Secondary Nations, and Tertiary Nations.

  Primary Nations are those nations and peoples who have shown themselves to be historically capable of creating the valued and rare elements of civilization. Primary Nations are the originating wellspring of creative innovation that the rest of the world then benefits from. Secondary Nations are capable of carrying on from one generation to the next the rudiments of civilization that are adopted from the creativity of the Primary Nations, but not of originating these rudimentary elements themselves to any significant extent. Tertiary Nations are capable of neither creating nor carrying on the elements of civilization, but only of exploiting, consuming, depleting, and destroying these civilizational elements.

  The present-day Primary Nations include (among others):

  a) All of Europe, from Iceland to the Ural Mountains, and from Lapland to Malta.

  b) The United States and Canada.

  c) The South American nations of Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay.

  d) Australia and New Zealand.

  e) Japan and Tibet.

  The Secondary Nations include (among others):

  a) India

  b) China

  c) Iran

  d) The Arab world

  e) Southeast Asia

  The Tertiary Nations include (among others):

  a) Sub-Saharan Africa

  b) Haiti

  c) Papua New Guinea

  Dharma Nationalist ideology pertains principally to the Primary Nations, and to a lesser extent to the Secondary Nations. It does not apply to the Tertiary Nations.

  Bio-cultural Identity and Diversity

  Humanity consists, not of one people, but of many. We consider the loss of ethnic sovereignty, physical extinction, the loss of language, cultural assimilation, and the loss of traditional culture to be irreparable deprivations for all of mankind. To quote the Russian political philosopher Alexander Dugin, “Nobody has the right to force any people to lose its uniqueness into the ‘global melting pot.”[3] Two prevailing myths of the secular-materialist worldview have been that ethnic identity is a primitive and unhealthy phenomenon that must be relegated to a savage past; and that all ethnic identity is destined to eventually disappear. Neither proposition, however, is rooted in reality, either political or biological.

  Ethnic identity is as integral and healthy a part of the human psyche as is the will to survive. Human beings are genetically and psychologically hot-wired to perceive and react ethnically — to identify warmly and with affection toward their own people. There is nothing any more wrong or “racist” about this natural fact than there is anything wrong or “racist” about the empirically verifiable facts of biology. Moreover, ethnic identity and pride, having reached an unnaturally low ebb in the last several decades of unceasing media propaganda, is now destined to grow once again. The Dharma Nation Movement supports the continued renewal of such healthy ethno-pluralism among all peoples.

  National Self-Determination

  “Breathes there the man with soul so dead,

  Who never to himself hath said,

  This is my own, my native land!”

  Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), “The Lay of the Last Minstrel”

  Freedom is arguably the most important natural quality of the human spirit. According to the ancient Vedic literatures, freedom is one of the essential attributes of our true and eternal self (atman). Without freedom, we cease to be human. And without the right to national self-rule, human beings are not free. E. M. Arndt (1769–1860) beautifully captures the comforting caress of freedom that is derived from a sense of national domain: “Freedom is where you can live, as pleases a brave heart; where you can live according to the customs and laws of your fathers; where you are made happy by that which made your most distant ancestors happy.”[4] One’s nation is one’s home. If one’s nation is held captive by alien occupation forces, the experience is akin to being under house arrest.

  We believe that all historically defined peoples, linguistic groups, nations, tribes and races have the inherent human right to self-governance, and to enjoy the benefits of having their own autonomous and independent, culturally homogeneous states if they so choose. Each distinct people has the inviolable right to exercise sovereignty in their own national homeland.

  A Dharma Nationalist government would support and encourage the creation of as many new, naturally arising, nation-states throughout the globe as are necessary for our world’s diverse peoples to feel that they each have a homeland of their own. The Tibetans, for example, deserve to have their own nation. The Kurds deserve to have their own nation. The Navajo deserve to have their own nation. There must be as many nations as there are legitimate peoples who wish to have their own nations. When a people feel that they have the freedom to express themselves within the confines of their own free nation, the resultant feelings of security and liberty naturally decreases the need for war and conflict. Rather than the 193 nation-states currently recognized by the United Nations, we envision a world with over 500 independent nations.

  Population Planning and Balance

  The world has experienced an unprecedented population explosion since the nineteenth century[5] that has lead to devastating environmental degradation, the overuse of our limited natural resources, the decline of the quality of life in the world’s urban areas, the growing pandemic of illegal immigration, the rapid spread of disease, and the erosion of traditional cultures. The global population must be brought back down from the current seven billion to the much more manageable level of between one to two billion human inhabitants if we are going to have a world that is again livable. Population control is not a Primary Nations problem. Population control must necessarily begin first and foremost in those nation-states that have experienced the greatest degree of population growth, and the attendant problems attributed to such growth. These nations have been the Secondary and Tertiary nations, most especially India, China, Indonesia, Iran, Egypt, Mexico, Brazil, and others.

  Israel Policy

  The historical record of the Abrahamic worldview has been a record in which conflict, conquest, violence, discord, anti-naturalism and war has been front and center. In addition to seeing themselves as being in a state of perpetual war with the non-Abrahamic world around them, the three primary religions of Abrahamism — Judaism, Pauline Christianity and Islam — have been engaged in a 1400-year internecine war even amongst themselves. Jews, Christians and Muslims have been at each others’ throats for more generations than we wish to count. We have witnessed the destructive fury of this war between these three religions in and around the Levant area of the Middle East for many centuries. The imaginary grand prize of this endless conflict is final ownership over the city of Jerusalem, which is the religious nerve center of all of Abrahamism. Jerusalem is viewed by these three religions as constituting the capital city and the very seat of power of the original inspiration behind Abrahamism, the tribal god El/Yahweh/Allah.

  As long as the spiritual affliction of Abrahamism itself continues to exist, internecine conflict between the three Abrahamic religions will also endure. A
brahamism is itself the historical origin of the phenomenon of violent religious warfare, and it is the sole perpetuator of violent religious warfare.[6]

  Our policy toward this eternally troubled area of our world, variously called Israel, Palestine, and the Levant, is to completely and immediately withdraw all American involvement in its fate. We will no longer extend aid to any of the combatants in the Israel/Palestine conflict. We do theoretically, however, support the creation of a Palestinian state in which the Palestinian people can exercise self-rule. We also, in theory, support the goal of having all Diaspora Jews eventually resettle in their historic homeland. We will, however, neither assist, nor hinder either side in their nation-building endeavors.

  Iran Policy

  Iran is one of the most ancient arya[7] civilizations in the world, with a venerable culture stretching back for millennia before the common era. We do not see Iran as a direct threat to America. Moreover, we do support the eventual replacement of the Shi’a Islam that has oppressed the people of Iran for 1400 years through a revival of Iran’s original, Vedic religion of Zoroastrianism. Such a Zoroastrian restoration would constitute the heart of a Dharma Nation movement in Iran today.