IA56,
I used to think the same way.
Now I feel very twisted by what I have been through.
It's hard to know if the change in my opinion is accurate, or a byproduct of the twisting.
I'm sorry that I have hit a nerve in you.
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I was reading recently about a meeting between Ghandi and Winston Churchill, prior to British involvement in WW2. Winston was for the use of force, but had agreed to hear Ghandi out.
Ghandi had witnessed the brutality, the full force and shock of the war apparatus of Great Britain, in his country. He had seen India raped and plundered at the hands of a brutal oppressor; he had been thrown in prison merely for offering peaceable opposition to it.
Ghandi was against the use of British military force against Hitler. The reasons are obvious to me, now, but it shocked me to the core when I first read it. Ghandi most likely agreed that what Hitler did was evil. But he was thinking of the people of Germany, too; what would they suffer at the hands of such a barbarous force as the same army that had brought India to its knees; subjugated it so utterly?
In the meeting, Ghandi pleaded for non-violence with Churchill. The meeting ended with Churchill remarking derisively, as Ghandi left, that he'd "be a fool to listen to what a man in a loincloth had to say."
This story always stayed with me. Let me also add that I have a special place in my heart for the Jews, though I've no Jewish ancestors of my own.
Yet sometimes, I agree with Ghandi.
I am grateful that someone was willing to stand up against Hitler and rally others to do the same. But here was the meeting of two great minds - both of which I had long admired - and here they were in dire opposition. The whole story gave me pause.
***********
When it comes to darkness: Warrior spirit vs. peace and love.
I don't know the answer.
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