Gandhi — vile human being?
Bookworm on Oct 02 2010 at 1:46 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
Let me say up front that Gandhi was an amazing leader. His non-violent approach to casting off the British empire was inspired (although he was helped by understanding that the British were unlike to use the jackboot to quell the movement he started).
Having said that — having appreciated his leadership and the results of that leadership — let me say that I’ve always thought Gandhi was a complete revolting human being. He was antisemitic, and his attitude towards women and sex is the kind of thing that makes any normal person’s skin crawl. Turns out he might have disliked other races, within India itself, just as much as he did Jews.
No real point to this post except to vent my spleen, to remind myself that great men aren’t always great human beings, and never to believe Hollywood history.
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I did not realize this about Ghandi. Good to know. Will have to look up some more detailed background about him though I never really paid that much attention other than his pacifist repuatation. Most people are probably like me and it is a shame that such a misconception is allowed unchallenged. Trying to see how history will be written about a contemporary is sometimes the best way to evaluate that person or event.
The definition isn’t “great man”. Rather it is man with a “great following”. But any old fool or evil crook can get people to follow them. You just sell them what they want to buy. That’s it.
You don’t have to deliver on peace or prosperity. You don’t have to deliver on actual promises. You just sell them what they want to buy. And if you can convince them that they need to buy stuff from the “Leader”, all the better. Cuts down on complications.
Ghandi is not a great anything. He just had a great number of fools and naive individuals looking for some kind of messiah following him. Look around you. This world has billions of them around. It ain’t that hard to find em, Book. Just look around you. And you’ll see thousands.
Greetings:
Recently, I read Niall Ferguson’s book, “Empire”. If I recollect correctly, he asserted that Gandhi used strategies other than non-violence in his campaigns. As the newspaperman in “Who Shot Liberty Valance” said. “… print the legend.”
Interesting that this came up. I don’t know why Gandhi’s been banging around the back of my head recently either, but he has. We must have both watched something, or listened to something – he is not often in my thoughts, either. And he was genuinely vile.
There’s sooo much more.
http://www.triviahalloffame.com/gandhi.aspx