A review by harmony
City Dharma: Keeping Your Cool in the Chaos by Arthur Jeon

1.0

The whole white guru thing started making me uncomfortable almost immediately, including the fact that the teachers he mentions directly learning from have Western names. The philosophy that this book delivers was just as watered down as I feared, and was full of white male arrogance. He mentions visiting South Africa and witnessing disgusting racism (complete with slurs, which he prints in full several times) and he pays himself on the back for having compassion for the racist he's hanging out with. He very explicitly does not ever speak or act in any way against the racist threats, even when it looks like it could escalate into violence. When DOES he step in ever? How about back in the States, where he touches an agitated man without the man's consent because he's SO enlightened, and then calls the man demented behind his back when someone else calms him down. He acknowledges this as a mistake, but honestly I couldn't imagine anyone but a white man with his head up his ass thinking that touching an agitated stranger is acceptable. DNF