it is alright to write about non-current politics here, right? i hope so.

thesis: gandhian non-violence satyagraha is nice and all, but only applicable when your tormenter is benevolent, and stronger than you. if your tormenter is benevolent and stronger than you, then they can do more for you than you can. therefore, some colonialism, such as the british control of india are good and should be encouraged.

satyagraha has worked a few times in human history. gandhi, mlk jr., and the velvet revolution of vaclav havel off the top of my head. but these enemies, the british, the americans, and the post-perestroika russians, were humane and/or media conscious (i'm not sure one could say the wwii era british were media conscious. did any brits really give a damn about india in the 1940s?).

my favorite gandhi quote is this letter he wrote to the jews of germany after kristallnacht:

"if i were a jew and were born in germany and earned my livelihood there, i would claim germany as my home even as the tallest gentile german may, and challenge him to shoot me or cast me into the dungeon... if one jew or all the jews were to accept the prescription here offered, he or they cannot be worse off than now. and suffering voluntarily undergone will bring them an inner strength and joy which no number of resolutions of sympathy can. the calculated violence of hitler may even result in a general massacre of the jews, but if the jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre i have imagined could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy that jehovah had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the tyrant."