To Uphold the World A Call for a New Global Ethic from Ancient India

by Rich, Bruce

• ISBN13: 9780807006139
• ISBN10: 0807006130
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-01
• Publisher: Beacon Press

Summary

In 1991, Bruce Rich traveled to Orissa and gazed upon the rock edicts erected by the Indian emperor Ashoka over 2,200 years ago. Intrigued by the stone inscriptions that declared religious tolerance, conservation, nonviolence, species protection, and human rights, Rich was drawn into Ashoka's world. Ashoka was a conqueror who converted to Buddhism on the heels of a bloody war, yet his empire rested on a political system that prioritized material wealth and amoral realpolitik. This system had been perfected by Kautilya, a statesman who wrote the world's first treatise on economics. In this powerful critique of the current wave of globalization, Rich urgently calls for a new global ethic, distilling the timely messages of Ashoka and Kautilya while reflecting on thinkers from across the agesfrom Aristotle and Adam Smith to George Soros.

Author Biography

The author of Mortgaging the Earth, Bruce Rich is a Washington, D.C., attorney who has worked to promote environmental and social standards for international finance, for which he received the United Nations’ Global 500 Award.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Preface	p. xiii
Note on Sanskrit Terms and Names	p. xvii
Past Present	p. 1
The Age of Transcendence	p. 19
The Great Dilemma	p. 39
The Arthasastra: Wealth above All	p. 65
The Gift of Dirt	p. 96
The Greatest Conquest	p. 112
Ashoka's Legacy: Conundrum and Challenge	p. 136
To Uphold the World	p. 156
Afterword by his Holiness The Dalai Lama	p. 183
Acknowledgments	p. 185
Notes	p. 187
Index	p. 211
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