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If only Gandhi's idealism was even somewhat practical. This is what he thought about the Jews: “Hitler killed five million [sic] Jews. It is the greatest crime
by frontman1988 4y ago
If only Gandhi's idealism was even somewhat practical. This is what he thought about the Jews: “Hitler killed five million [sic] Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs.....It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany.... As it is they succumbed anyway in their millions.”
The world is not a fair place. Morality doesn't get you fed, doesn't get you proper education or healthcare. And when you don't have proper opportunities to earn money the right way, it's tough not rationalizing scamming other people to get your basic needs fullfilled. Overall it's a good thought experiment to imagine what all we would have done if we were not born with our current privilege. I personally feel people are only as good as the world allows them to be.
- potamic 4y agoGandhi might've said a lot of things, but the point of that quote is that retaliation leads to an overall worse outcome. Unless you're an egomaniac, you will want to swallow your pride, break the chain of retaliation and live your life in peace. Retaliation is an inherently unstable state. You are right that people are only as good as the world allows them to be. Which brings us to morality. It is not about any greater good or anything like that. Morality is simply what the world has defined that allows people to be. Over time humanity has understood a set of ideas that allow a stable society to exist. Without these you will have a very dysfunctional society that is in a perpetual state of retaliation. The wise founders of nations have realized this and codified morals into law. There is no society today that exists without law because any such society would not have stood the test of time.