There are few things we disagree on Neitzsche, but this is one of them. You cannot generalise all the West and Westerners into one group and attribute to them the same intention. You are a critical thinker, and such sweeping generalizations do not behove you.
I have several Western friends who respect, admire and adore Hinduism, India, Indian history. Several Western intellectuals have opined similarly. In the case of some of my friends, such as my Gnostic friends. They are very spiritual people. The one I mentioned has in his home a statue of a Buddha, a picture of the virgin mary, the Ek onkar symbol, a crucifix and owns a copy of the bible and the koran. He is strongly affiliated to the gnostic tradition, that believe all religions contain an element of truth. He is equally at home in reading the Gita as he is in reading the bible. I have known for him 2 years now and he is one of the most lovely people you could meet. There is nothing sinister about him or his intentions.
There are genuine and valid spiritual traditions in the West as well such as Gnosticism, which is an ancient tradition going back to Plato, which have recently been allowed to flourish in the West due to the introduction of Yoga. They have their own meditation traditions and a long history of adepts.
You should not tar all Westerners with the same brush, my friend. I have a great respect and love for many Western people I have met in my life, who ironically enough are just as critical of Western culture as we are and are looking forward to a more spiritual time.[/QUOTE]
When I said “in general,” I meant “as an aggregate.” Finding those kinds of Westerners is akin to finding diamonds among a sea of sand. They are there, but, unfortunately, quiet hard to come across by. I have even mentioned this quiet a few times in my other posts. And besides, look at High Wolf. He is a Westerner and I respect him very much. I have even bowed down to him and compared his words to the song, Vitali Chaconne (at least, as played by Heifetz :D). And look at my forum name.
The cultural (even intellectual) subversion I speak of has happened for much of the history of the West. They have “burrowed” the ideas of other civilizations and look what happened. There are hardly any ideas, developments, and advancements you can definitely identify as having originated in another civilization. This is especially the case in the subjects of mathematics and science.
And the same is happening with Yoga. Sure, I will admit that most practice it for spiritual and physical benefits. However, those that do are unwittingly aiding the process of cultural theft by practicing it superficially (in addition to still maintaining and spreading Westernized anti-Hindu/Indian biases). This liberalization of Yoga will, in the future, cause it to be absorbed into the fabric of the West. And what will happen then? At that point, classical Western chauvinism will kick in, causing Westerners to essentially repudiate its Hindu roots, through intellectual dogmatism. Sure the historical credit will be there. But in Western academia, descriptions of Yoga will eventually come to say, “Although Yoga originated in India, Caucasians aggrandized its prevalence, causing its teachings to develop to its current levels of import” (or something to that effect). And the acrimonious actions presently being undertaken by asinine Christians and Muslims are not helping that trend.
Additionally, the current situation of the Western world is even more cause for worry. Economies are failing. Anti-Islamic sentiment is increasing. Nationalist, religious, and cultural pride is kicking in, plunging the countries in question ever deeper into the abyss of ignorance and cultural insularity.
