Plato, Aristotel, Jesus, and a plethora of other wonderful thinkers who's ideas have been only half understood, twisted, or otherwise hijacked, by people wanting to push the teeming masses around for the last few thousand years. Those are probably a good deal of the prime cause.

As for the east. The culture no more spirtiual then the western culture is. Its just the people in the east understand their own form of spiritually better then they do others whereas we westerners tend to understand others forms of spirituality better then our own. We ask absolutist questions about our spiritual traditions and then instead of seriously seeking a real absolutist answer (a concept most of us have little understanding of, there it is absolutist and non-contirdictory to say: "We defintly have no idea" and "It defintly could go either way as this point"), we assume an answer then ask more questions, get frustrated, and either abandon spirituallity completely or turn to prepackaged salvation, do-it-yourself enlightenment or cafateria spirtuality. We act like nobody has thought about this stuff before. Like every one living in europe before the rennisance had an IQ of ten.

"Why do we put up with bashers, censors, Grundies, authoritarian jackbooters, bookburners, rednecks and with the promulgation of hate?"

Because we are those people! They are our fathers and mothers. Our brothers and sisters. Our little old great aunts who send us over sized green sweaters every chistmas! They are us! ALL OF US! We put up with them becuase if we did not we could not put up with ourselves.

Do you honestly think that the west has no wisdom? We have all the wisdom we could ask for! It's simply that most people around here don't read it, don't hear it, and above all don't understand it when they do.

People are people, everywhere and everywhen. It the most discouraging and encouraging thing I can say.