Ashoka for President

Imagine for a moment that people from other times and places could run in the 2024 US presidential election. In this hopeful spirit, I would like to nominate the great Buddhist king Ashoka for president. At more than two thousand years old, he may be a bit older than recent candidates, but, as you will see, his ideas are far more suited for our time.

Ashoka ruled India for thirty-seven years, from 268 to 232 BCE, and has considerable administrative experience. What makes him attractive to today’s voters is the principled way he governed his realm, and that, shunning the ephemeral sound bites of today’s fly-by-night politicians, he carved his policy statements in stone so that we can still read them more than two thousand years later.

I want to share a few of those inscriptions here and show how they might be interpreted in the context of our present historical moment as planks in Ashoka’s campaign platform.

Dhamma

The defining vision of Ashoka’s civic policy is the radical idea that the purpose of government is to promote the welfare and well-being of all, a concept he captures with the word “dhamma.” (The sale of DHAMMA hats—Democratic Humanitarian Alliance for Mindful Multilateral Action—will fund his campaign.) The word relates to the teachings of the Buddha, but Ashoka’s use of the term can be seen in a more universal secular light. Here are some of the ways he defines dhamma:

There is no gift like the gift of dhamma, which consists of:

• the proper treatment of workers;
• the proper respect for elders;
• generosity toward everyone;
• treating all living creatures with compassion.

By means of this dhamma, everyone succeeds in this world.

In addition:

• mother and father should be honored;
• all the respect due to male relatives
   should also apply to female relatives;
• truth should be spoken.

These are the attributes of dhamma that should be practiced.
Everyone should declare that it is good to do these things.

Ashoka holds these truths to be self-evident: that all people are equal and have an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The role of the government and of political leaders is to help its citizens secure and protect these rights, to work for the good of all people and for the welfare of all living things.

We can see from this inscription that Ashoka has a progressive labor policy, elevating the treatment of workers, and a deep commitment to gender equality. He also has great respect for the elders of our society, so we can be sure he will be a strong supporter of the Social Security system and other programs supporting our senior citizens. This is not just compassionate but also wise, considering senior citizens are by far the likeliest group to bother to vote.

As we will see, Ashoka’s emphasis upon generosity envisions a major reorientation of our economic system, and perhaps most radical is his call for treating all beings, both human and nonhuman, with compassion. His declaration of the importance of truth is downright revolutionary in our current political climate. 

Ashoka is calling for no less than the dawning of a new era, in which the priorities of life on this planet are reordered.

A New Vision

For many years cruelty has prevailed,
both toward people and animals.
Now Ashoka says let the sound of the war drum
be the call to the practice of dhamma.

To a degree never seen before
let the care for all living beings be practiced,
let the slaughter of animals cease,
and let all people be treated with proper respect.

Human history is filled with violence, cruelty, and the oppression of some people by others. This is because our species has been driven by the primitive survival instincts of greed and hatred, while a fundamental delusion has prevented us from seeing things as they actually are. The time has come to move in a new direction altogether. 

The role of governance and of political leaders should be to work for the good of all people and for the welfare of all living things. What could be more important than this? 

Because all life on this planet is interdependent, with all beings relying upon one another and interrelated to one another, the welfare of one depends on the welfare of all. To favor humanity at the expense of other species is shortsighted and sure to not end well. Fundamental respect will be extended to all forms of life on Earth. The diversity of species and habitat will be protected to the greatest extent possible.

Ashoka has confidence that human wisdom is capable of creating the optimal conditions for the flourishing of all life on Earth.  

Health Care Policy

Everywhere within the country, 
and also around the world, 
Ashoka shall institute two kinds of medical treatment: 
medical treatment for humans and medical treatment for animals. 
All roots and fruits and medicinal herbs, 
wholesome for humans and for animals, 
shall be imported and planted wherever they did not exist.
And along the roads wells shall be dug and trees shall be planted 
for the benefit of both humans and animals.

All medical, dental, psychological health, etc., services will be supported and funded by the government and will be freely available to all inhabitants.

The profit motive will be taken out of the medical industry:

• All medical care will be administered by nonprofit agencies. This includes hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, biotech research facilities, and others.
• Physicians and health care providers will continue to be well-paid, but fees will be standardized with no provision for the pursuit of profit.
• Medical care providers will be held accountable to the highest standards, and feedback systems will be put in place to ensure the quality of care and service.

The US will retain its leadership role in medical research and innovation. Resources will be provided to ensure this.

Care for nonhuman species will be understood as care for the global ecological environment, and a robust capability of safeguarding the quality of life for all living systems will be put in place and sustained.

The inalienable right to life, liberty, and happiness shall be extended to include all living systems on land and sea, both fauna and flora, and every care shall be taken to preserve a healthy environment for all life on Earth. Mitigating the human impact on global climate change will be diligently pursued. Despite being two thousand years behind in scientific conversation, Ashoka’s positions on climate science still lead the 2024 field.

Foreign Policy

It might occur to those outside my kingdom:
What are Ashoka’s intentions toward us?

This alone is my desire for those outside the kingdom:

• that they may understand my kind wishes toward them,
• that they may be free from fear of me and trust me,
• that they may receive from me only happiness and not sorrow.

And I would further wish that they understand this:

• that we will tolerate in them whatever can be tolerated,
• that they may be inspired by me to practice dhamma,
• and that they may thus gain happiness in the present and in the future.

Before he embraced the dhamma, Ashoka was a warrior king, conquering his enemies with fire and sword. After a particularly terrible battle, he vowed to renounce violence forever. Historical records point to his visit to a sangha near the capital city of Pataliputra as a crucial turning point where he then underwent what Romila Thapar describes as a “gradual and increasingly close association with Buddhism,” revealing his newfound religious zeal to his followers through his early Minor Rock Edict I, disclosing, “It has been over two and a half years since I have been an upasaka…”

Despite (or because of) his history as a warrior king, Ashoka considers warfare to be obsolete in the modern age and renounces all aggression. Any violent aggressive action, whether by an individual or by a larger social or political entity, shall be regarded not as an act of war but as a criminal act, rooted in greed, hatred, or delusion.

The US will renounce all preemptive warfare, and will vastly reduce its military forces, eliminating large troop deployments around the world. It will not maintain the ability to fight a large-scale war on a moment’s notice, and thus will not have a large standing force and large stockpiles of military equipment and munitions.

It will, however, retain a robust special forces capability that is highly trained and well-equipped, and whose mission is driven by humanitarian, rather than political, aims:

The US will retain preeminence in the research and development of military technology, emphasizing defensive capabilities. Its goal is the capability of shielding itself and others effectively from all possible forms of attack, rather than the launching of attacks.

Under Ashoka, the US will gradually lead the world toward nuclear disarmament by example, drawing down its nuclear capability and retaining a small defensive capability until full global disarmament is accomplished. It will uphold the policy of the nonmilitarization of Antarctica, the moon, and space.

Ashoka as President

It is hard to do good. It is easy to do harm. 
A person who does good does a difficult thing.
I have done many good things, and wish only that others 
will follow my example and do the right things.

There is no practice of dhamma without goodness;
in this work it is good to progress and not fall back.
All people should make progress in goodness 
and not be satisfied with their shortcomings.

I regard all people as my family.
What I desire for my family—
that they be provided with welfare 
and well-being in this world and the next
—the same do I desire for all people.

I always attend to the affairs of the people.
I am eager to receive reports concerning public business
—whether eating, traveling, at home, or in the office—
wherever I am, informants should bring up matters that need attention.

I am never complacent in exerting myself,
for I consider the welfare of all people to be my responsibility.
There is no task more important 
than working for the welfare of the whole world.

Ashoka does not presume that these changes he envisions will come about quickly or easily. It will take the work of many generations. But the time to set the aspiration is now.

What might our country and world be like if we had politicians driven by Ashoka’s dedication to working for the welfare of all?

[Note: These translations of Ashoka’s edicts are authentic insofar as they are made by the author directly from the original Prakrits of the inscriptions, but considerable license has been taken in their organization and wording. For a full discussion and close translation, see Patrick Olivelle’s Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King (Yale UP 2023).]