Jack D. rapes the East

Jack Dorsey, cofounder of Twitter & Dropbox(?), isn’t a favourite of mine with his “smash the Brahmin Patriarchy.”

I follow him on Twitter and stumbled on his thread about how he celebrated his birthday with Vipassna meditation in Myanmar.

I found the above tweet to be the most interesting because it highlights the contradiction of Westerners pursuing Eastern mysticism.

Using iWatches and Ouras to somehow hack meditation is so woke & Silicon Valley but at the same time it eviscerates the wisdom of the East. One doesn’t meditate simply to self-actualise, one meditates to attain oblivion (of sorts).

The fact that Jack doesn’t grasp this and makes it about endurance just goes to show that much as he tries he’ll never grasp the East in the way only Easterners can.

It’s bring to mind:

Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,

6 thoughts on “Jack D. rapes the East”

  1. Meditation can be used to achieve multiple goals. If Jack wants to use it to reduce stress and improve his cardiac health there is nothing wrong with it.

    1. I remember I was telling V that I wanted to meditate and she said an interesting thing that it’s never wise to open the third eye before your time.

      It’s difference between living a tradition (and growing up in it) versus approaching it as an outsider..

      Jack’s tone is just too glib.. of course I could just be jealous that he started two separate billion dollar companies (before 30) and I didn’t..

      1. Twitter and Square!

        Honestly, this piece feels like a cultural appropriation rant, though I suspect you would not like it to be called that. I also don’t think there is any consensus or received wisdom on what the ultimate purpose of meditation should be.

        And hey, what is wrong with smashing Brahmanical patriarchy : )

  2. The racial animus on this site seems to be reserved for white males. BP is silent on an african american woman calling Priyanka Chopra a “scam artist.”

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