I feel like I've made this post before

[sabotabby]

Dear white liberals,

Please stop talking about Gandhi until you have read at least one (1) book about Indian Independence (that was not written by a white liberal) and until you can spell his name properly.

kthnxbye,

sabotabby

Comments

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

what brought this on?

[sabotabby]

Typical friend-of-friend stuff.

[mistersmearcase.livejournal.com]

Tee hee. The same could be said of so much, though. Dear undergraduates: please do not be with the "I'm such a Buddhist" unless you've done more than take an Eastern Religions course. For example.

[sabotabby]

Oh God, yes.

"I like Eastern religions. They're so much more spiritual."

[beeblism.livejournal.com]

yeah -- free tibet! but uh... not their women!

[robotar.livejournal.com]

Hahaha! Excellent!
Once a friend told me she was a Buddhist and I said, "oh, which branch?" And she was tres confused!
Later I asked her where she learned to meditate and the way she meditated. Considering a real practicing Buddhist lived down my hall (shrine and all -- fire rules exception made for his incense) it became apparent she was DUH-UMB.

[hopita.livejournal.com]

Does Gandhi's auotbiography count?

His first name was "Mahatma," right?

Ben Kingsley is totally hot!

/sarcasm

[sabotabby]

That movie! *blocks it out*

[bike4fish.livejournal.com]

Is this the point where I tell the following tale? Or will I be hurt?

Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time. This produced an impressive set of callouses on his feet. He also ate very little, which
made him rather frail, and as he aged, suffered from occasional bouts of severe bad breath.


This made him:

A super fragile calloused mystic, vexed by halitosis.

[sabotabby]

Terrible. Yet I laughed!

[jhfurnish.livejournal.com]

In 'How Non-Violence Protects the State' it shows that Indian armed revolutionaries actually did the vast amount of work on hammering the British, and that the British only gave Ghandi any credit because they didn't want to face those tactics elsewhere in their Empire.

[sabotabby]

In short, yes. Along with global economic conditions, etc.

[sabotabby]

(P.S. Gandhi.)

[goodlookinout.livejournal.com]

Can I still like Propagandhi?

[sabotabby]

Yes. They are from the 'Peg.

[jvmatucha.livejournal.com]

I'm out to pimp-slap the Orwell poseurs. The test: "Name something else he wrote besides 1984 or Animal Farm."

Or the good ol' standby "Who was Eric Blair?"

Next: Trekkie poseurs!

[jhfurnish.livejournal.com]

You can test me. I'll out-hardcore you on Trek and I've even given it up - but I'm mostly a former OLD-SCHOOL Trekkie. I'm 40.

[threepunchstuff.livejournal.com]

this guy was all liek 'why cant the iraquois do it gondy style' and im liek 'that guys music videos are lamer'.

[sabotabby]

OMG FER REALZ.

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

Please stop talking about Gandhi until you have read at least one (1) book about Indian Independence (that was not written by a white liberal) and until you can spell his name properly.

Or at least a short essay by George Orwell:

It was also apparent that the British were making use of him, or thought they were making use of him. Strictly speaking, as a Nationalist, he was an enemy, but since in every crisis he would exert himself to prevent violence--which, from the British point of view, meant preventing any effective action whatever--he could be regarded as "our man". In private this was sometimes cynically admitted. The attitude of the Indian millionaires was similar. Gandhi called upon them to repent, and naturally they preferred him to the Socialists and Communists who, given the chance, would actually have taken their money away.

Gandhi's response to the Holocaust was appalling:

According to Mr. Fischer, Gandhi's view was that the German Jews ought to commit collective suicide, which "would have aroused the world and the people of Germany to Hitler's violence." After the war he justified himself: the Jews had been killed anyway, and might as well have died significantly.

I find that Orwell is a good tonic for Gandhi.

[sabotabby]

"If you are not prepared to take life, you must often be prepared for lives to be lost in some other way."

My objection to pacifism as an ideology in a nutshell.

[beeblism.livejournal.com]

what do you think of ward churchill's pacifism as pathology? i used to give that book to pacifists, but i haven't updated my "who's right" file since he was accused of bullshitting. (i haven't read anything that challenged the legitimacy of any of his sources or claims in that particular book.)

[sabotabby]

It was a huge influence on me (and I haven't heard anything challenging the facts in it either). He's dogmatic in the service of making his point, but the argument is a fundamentally sound one.

[moonwrangler.livejournal.com]

Amen to that.

[sabotabby]

:)

[lopukhov.livejournal.com]

Ghandi? Godwin?

[sabotabby]

Wait, didn't we make an internet rule?

[gillen.livejournal.com]

Dear everyone,

Please stop talking about Gandhi.

[sabotabby]

Eh, I wouldn't go that far. I just think that any discussion ought to include an honest assessment.

[robotar.livejournal.com]

Oh god, for real.
I really like Ambedkar, personally.

Also: Martin Luther King leaned towards violent protest towards the end of his life, though he had previously adhered to the principles of the satyagraha. Interesting, huh?

[sabotabby]

I've heard this, though I wonder about the context of the quotes I've seen.

[dj-cpi.livejournal.com]

yer awesome.

[sabotabby]

You too.