Originally posted by: Atheus
Originally posted by: RichardE
Originally posted by: Atheus
Originally posted by: RichardE
Pacifist never win.
Ghandi? Martin Luther King? No?...
Martin Luther King galvanized an already militant black society. You cannot speak of Martin Luther King without also speaking of Malcolm X and of the Black Panthers, and of the all black unions, and of the militant notion of black power that was bred out of the 30's and 40's.
Ghandi, I cannot discuss as in depth sadly, though I am sure you can find a militant attitude, or militant force working with the same ideas as him that gave his ideas a "bite" that words themselves just do not have.
Yes, both of those leaders and their philosophies had their roots in militant organisations, but (especially in the case of Ghandi) they were a
reaction to it rather than an
element of it. Either movement could easily have been wiped out by the much more powerful opposition if they had continued to use violence, but their non-violent methods made that morally and politically unacceptable. It is certainly not true that pacifists never win, and in fact, I think the only way left for the Palestinians to survive is to adopt non-violence. Israel has an excuse (although some would say not a particularly good one) to kill the civilians due to the presence of militants in their midst, but how long would it be allowed to continue if there
were no more militants? How many thousands of deaths and how many destroyed homes and schools would it take before the world, even America, said enough is enough?