Ghandi has a lot in common with Quantum Mechanics. His principles are rarely understood by those who think he makes good evidence for their lunacy. Recently on twitter discussing the recent “troubles” in Iran someone pulled out this little bit of fluff from our patron saint of starvation:
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mahatma Gandhi
For the moment, lets ignore that anyone quoting Ghandi probably hasn’t got much of a clue to start with. The man was a manipulator of fools, fair weather pacifist and vicious racist. If we look only at the quote itself however, we see one of those chestnuts of seeming wisdom often repeated but rarely held to a reality check.
For instance, let’s look at one of the most obvious examples Hitler’s Reich. For years Hitler was ignored, then ridiculed, then we fought him and he got his skinny ass handed to him. Similarly the Japanese empire at the time was ignored, and ridiculed and then destroyed. The Soviets and the threat of communism suffered in much the same way.
In fact, the list of times when being ignored was probably the best thing to be hoped for is fairly long. Ask Saddam Hussein who was ignored during the Clinton years and ridiculed as a threat before finally making such a pain in the ass of himself that he finally convinced us it was time to fight him.
Just a thought.
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