Articles about Social Commentary

From Back to Godhead, September–October 1998   One of our BTG staff members suggested I comment here on the nuclear blasts detonated, amidst considerable publicity, by India and her arch-rival Pakistan. I'm not much inclined to do it. For me it's boring. I'm getting tired of the material world. Okay -- India and Pakistan are now better equipped to blow each other up, and maybe they will. That means death, and lots of it. But what do you expect? That's the material world: everyone has to die. Taking a materialistic point of view: Life is nothing but chemicals racing around. So … [Read more...] about Have a Blast, O Tiger Among Men!

From Back to Godhead, July–August 1997   Astrologers, we've heard, are predicting a forthcoming war. If we believe accounts passed on from a well-reputed star-reader in Jaipur, the next world war is on its way. Expect conflicts to start mounting within the next year or so, he says. And by the year 2000 expect 35% of the world's people to be dead. Several other astrologers paint similar pictures of doom. Do we believe them? Maybe. Astrologers can be wrong (a leading pundit predicted Mr. Clinton would lose the ’96 elections), and they can also be terribly right. So what to … [Read more...] about Predictions of the Next World War

 from Back to Godhead, September-October 1992   Twenty years ago, no one gave a damn. You could gum up a river with factory sludge, chop down rain forests wholesale, spray fluorocarbons into the air like a kid sprinkling confetti, and no one would say boo. No longer. Grade-school kids want to grow up to be ecologists. New York tycoons sort their trash to recycle. Rock singers play concerts to save prairies and wetlands. Political candidates tell us they’re worried about the fate of the three-toed baboon. Caring about the environment helps you feel good about yourself. At the … [Read more...] about Are You More than Green, Righteous, and Dead?

from Back to Godhead, May 1984   Iceland’s minister of finance may soon face a hard decision—his country or his dog. In Reykjavik, the capital, a 62-year-old law bans dogs from the city on health grounds. Yet the minister, Mr. Albert Gudmundsson, lives in Reykjavik with a dog (the family pet), a 13-year-old mongrel named Lucy. “Lucy is a dear member of our family, as dear to us as a child,” he said. This family has now been unsettled by a journalist at the state radio, who has reported Lucy’s illegal presence to the police. If prosecuted, Mr. Gudmundsson may be fined, and … [Read more...] about Who’s in the Doghouse Now?

from Back to Godhead, March-April 1995   Bradley Stinkbrain, 73, is in the prime of his life. . . and having the time of his life. Now, you can too! Thanks to the amazing, new "anti-aging" discoveries, enclosed. . . Not long ago, someone in our community passed along to me a magazine pitch she'd received in the mail. On the front of the oversize envelope, a headline announced—blue type on a bright green background—"Old Age Isn't Natural." And there, bursting with good health, shone Living Proof, our man Bradley, strong, relaxed, his smile radiant, his hair a rich grey crown, … [Read more...] about The Myth of Old Age

from Back to Godhead, September-October 1995   Yes, I've got one. Use it all the time. And I’ve been close to them for more than twenty years, since the days when we first computerized our typesetting. They save lots of work, and make the impossible possible. But they’re dangerous, devilish machines, and we use them at our peril. I’m not talking about low-level radiation, or the computer’s role in weapons of mass destruction. What I have in mind is its role in mass distraction. Here I am with a short human lifetime, and somehow, by good fortune, I’ve discovered it’s … [Read more...] about The Evil Computer

from Back to Godhead, March-April 1997   In more than twenty-five years of coming to India, I'd never seen the Taj Mahal—never had a desire to or a reason to. But when my mother came on her first-ever trip to India, how could she go back home to America and say she hadn't seen the Taj Mahal? So I brought her. And I confess to being pleased with her when she found the Taj "rather a disappointment." At first view, it was "breathtaking," she said. But the closer you get, the less impressive it looks. Though it majestically fills a picture postcard, really the place is fairly … [Read more...] about The Taj Mahal: Enduring Monument to Love

from Back to Godhead, March-April 1998   According to an Indian proverb, there’s nothing that a goat won’t eat and nothing that a madman won’t say. Madmen? Sometimes it seems like we’re living in a world of them, or at least a world of fools. The human impulse is to say something—anything. Something stupid, something contentious, something sweet, deceitful, smart, ridiculous, or empty. Big strings of words, amounting to nothing. It’s astonishing. Nearly as surprising: You can speak the most outrageous foolishness, and someone out there—most likely many someones—will for … [Read more...] about Nothing that a Goat Won’t Eat

from Back to Godhead, June 1989   In the ancient land of the Incas and the Aztecs, in the capital city of a country I’d rather not name, for many years an old man with a pushcart stood on the street outside our Hare Krishna temple selling bananas, oranges, apples, pineapples, and papayas. Now the fruits and the pushcart are gone, but the man is still there. And now he has a new occupation—changing dollars. He and nearly everyone else on the block. Roll down your car window. You’ll get the latest street-market exchange rate. And on the spot you can change your local money … [Read more...] about Moustaches and Moneybelts