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Edited on Tue Nov-23-04 10:08 AM by CoffeeAnnan
In his book GANDHI: A MEMOIR, the great William Shirer makes a comparison between Gandhi and Hitler.He says that Hitler was a mesmerizing orator who moved Germans to a frenzy during each major speech.Even Hausfraus were caught up in the power of those orations and they would scream about Jews, gypsies, Slavs and others that need to be killed so Germany could get its revenge against those that meant them harm.One always felt that any one other than a German would be physically assaulted during these mass meetings.
By contrast, Gandhi too could stir hundreds of thousands of his countrymen but was always careful to tell them that their struggle is not against the British but against injustice.That individual Britons were our friends and no one should physically assault them or threaten them with violence. This is why Shirer says he and many British colleagues never felt that harm would come their way even at the height of India's Independence Movement.
Now, as we think about the hollow men that hold power in our own country, it would be worth recalling that none of these, Bush, Cheney or Rumsfeld, can be thought of as people who have earned any right to lead us either by virtue of an examplary life led, courage shown or moral rectitude or even their accomplishments in Business which they have claimed as their strength.One could probably say, as Patrick Buchanan has done, that even Hitler has shown personal courage by laying his life on the line by fighting in the German Armed Forces during WWI.Contrast that with the courage or lack thereof of GW or Dick Cheney or Rumsfeld.
It is my belief that the resort to base tactics like smearing one's opponent comes from their realization that they are indeed hollow men who cannot appeal to people on their merits alone.They have to erect a phantom threat and appeal to fear and prejudice.
Men like Ike, Gandhi, Churchill did not need such tactics.
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