I heard a story on the BBC about how K-Pop fans are emerging as a socio-political force. If you have a large number of people who co-ordinate their efforts, you can thereby influence what trends on social media; and this in turn influences what is in the news and what spin is put up on the events that occur. It could be a new form of democracy. Of course, it could also be a subtle manipulation.

One of the interesting features of this kind of thing is that it is international. It transcends national democratic institutions. Current example: we see the George-Floyd-incident in the USA become an international issue. Going even beyond the anglophone world.

Because it is trending in the media, it is the issue everybody is talking about and that’s putting people on the streets protesting, making the issue harder to ignore: politicians have to talk about it.

One could see how this phenomenon could potentially work for good or for ill. In the present case, I certainly hope that the media storm and the resulting street actions do result in genuine changes in the real world. But that’s the important thing. I’ll come back to that in a minute.

Leaving aside the particular case, reflecting on the psychology of such a phenomenon. This can be seen as a collective example of what in Buddhist psychology is call samjña. Samjña is the third skandha.

The best way to understand samjña is to think of it as a mild trance. Once one is tuned into something, one’s thoughts and feelings all start to flow in that direction. Other things fade from view. Samjña employs whatever repertoire of responses we are already familiar with. It tunes us in.

So, following the skandha cycle, the rupa in this case was the film-clip of George Floyd with the policeman’s knee on his neck, saying “I can’t breathe!” This triggered a reaction, vedanā, in all of us. For most people, this reaction was some sort of revultion, a kind of repulsive reaction.

After vedanā comes samjña, the third skandha
Rupa sets up vedanā. Vedanā leads into samjña.

The form this takes will depend on what we have already got stored up inside us. Some take to the barricades, some defend the status quo, some become fatalistic, and so on. We get into our familiar pattern.

This is like the effect of music. The first few bars of a familiar song are the rupa. This triggers recognition, vedanā, which is an immediate reaction: joy, horror – depending on whether one likes the song or not. Then, very quickly, one is into samjña, dancing to the beat. In politics as on the dance floor, people sway to the music that’s familiar to them.

Trance is contagious. Where there is a sense of shared affiliation the trance spreads like a virus. The shared identity might be political alignment, social grouping, class, or it could be K-Pop! Whatever! We are soon swept up in the intoxication, for good or for ill.

Buddhism aims to free us from such intoxication. But that doesn’t mean that one becomes a passive by-stander. It means that one frees oneself to make a constructive decision. It means that one seeks by deliberate choice, an engagement that genuinely serves the creation of a better future.

No doubt, the current trend of anti-racism will fade. It will be displaced by the next popular cause. That isn’t enough. What matters is, whether the real constructive action can take place, that makes a difference in the real world. This goes beyond dancing to an ephemeral media trend. Real action requires commitment, persistence, creativity, and co-operation. This is more challenging. But unless we can grasp this nettle firmly, we’ll be back to the same issue again, many years hence.

Thank you very much
Namo Amida Bu

Dharmavidya
David

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  • Sometimes I see myself being in the samjña while watching some youtube videos about the cultural war between China and Korea. This started from Korean K-Pop became famous worldwide. Then those Chinese YouTubers saying that whatever Koreans doing is all from Chinese culture. Then the Korean YouTubers going crazy, etc. Knowing that all cultures throughout the East are the result of being influenced one and another still sometimes the repulsive reaction surges up. ^-^

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