Conclusion:
While it is easy to get caught up in the symptoms of our many crises (the brutal violence, the enormous inequities, the extinction of cultures and languages, the degradation of the environment), it is equally important, if not more, to understand their roots. We must creatively analyze the content and the consequences of our current economic, political, social, and educational systems, without reverting to a romanticized past of pristine traditions. From these critical reflections, we must generate new spaces, systems, and processes - based on moral and holistic visions of human potential and human progress - which can lead us out of the global self-destruction which engulfs us. Throughout it all, we must consider and negotiate our own roles, while asking ourselves how we are either working for solutions or contributing to making the crisis worse.
The use of force ethically can be justified by various rationalizations including self-defense, just war theory, deterrence, first strike, holy war/crusade and in ideological terms. Even with these justifications, violence used either in terrorism or military intervention can often have unforeseen consequences and in some cases it may go counter to the ideals espoused.
When brute force is used, even for a supposedly noble vision, it fails to create a society that it wants. The seeds of violence can often germinate into an increase in violence: Terrorism breeds reprisals, occupation by a foreign army creates resistance. So when seeds of violence are planted, the future will grow trees of insurgency, terrorism and counter-violence.
Violence also leads to escalation of violence with an "eye for an eye" mentality. Gandhi cautions against this downward spiral: "To answer brutality with brutality is to admit one's moral and intellectual bankruptcy, and it can only start a vicious circle." Rather than regarding the means and ends as separate, Gandhi challenges us to view them as connected, not divided from each other.
I repeat, if the world has to be retrieved from the present state of affairs, if war has to be evaded, if man wants peace and enjoy the basic aspects of life, if we want a good tommorrow for our children, if we hope to leave the best for our future generations, then please DONT talkt about wars.Dont even have the premonitions of WW3.Talk about peace.Talk about how to solve the situations without weapons.Talk about truth and non- violence.Ok,dont follow them because they were Gandhian principles.Make them YOUR principles.Let the future generations know them as your principles.But follow them you must, that is if you are hoping for a better future for you and your future generations.If you claim that you are NOT selfish enough to indulge in petty ego issues.Which is unfortunately, what is happening in the present world.
Instead of becoming irrelevant, Gandhi's ideas offer an analysis of the use of violence. Once the inherent problems with violence are applied to situations that use brute force, we can then look at whether those problems can be resolved through non-violence, which offers the way out from a cycle of escalating violence and the tragic loss of lives.
'It is my belief that the problem of bringing peace to the world on a supernational basis will be solved only by employing Gandhi's method on a large scale.''
-Albert Einstein
''Gandhi is inevitable. If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. He lived, thought and acted inspired by the vision of humanity evolving toward a world of peace and harmony. We may ignore Gandhi at our own risk."
-Martin Luther King Jr
My final comment:
In a world increasingly enamoured with technology and good-living on one hand and giving in to violence on the other, perhaps it is time to rediscover the Mahatma.
I would like to end with these famous words by the great Sri.Rabindranath Tagore:
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake."
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti!!!
Raksha😃
comment:
p_commentcount