Oh, the propaganda definitely doesn’t work. I said semi-democratic for a reason—the forms of democracy are there, but they’re not doing much of anything. They are a very, very, very weak form of pressure—but that’s not the same as no form of pressure at all. Tiny incremental changes (like the constitutional change last year which didn’t change anything on the ground level but did remove the king’s supposed divine status) can eventually add up. It’s just that those add up on ridiculously slow timescales.
I think we’re seeing something of the sort in China, where having idealist laws and constitution eventually give people a little leverage against corruption.
Yes! I think the essence of Ghandi’s non-violent opposition to the British was to take the British at their word. To repeat (a carefully selected) bunch of their own ideas back to them. To make them realize if they wanted to think of themselves as “good” they were going to have to address the inconsistencies between what they said and what they did.
This has also been an important part of the advance of civil rights for racial minorities in the U.S. in my personal experience. It is hard to totally ignore someone who is spouting words you believe in and not simultaneously threatening you with violence.
Ultimately in the U.S. and the West generally, these experiences of accepting differences, of inclusion, have lead to a new ideology of a positive value associated with diversity, not just a “tolerance” of it. I don’t know if you can live in the U.S. these days, with Thai restaurants and Indian and Chinese engineers, British rock stars and Polynesian beauties, and not recognize the great positive utility that diversity provides to the cooperative human enterprise.
I don’t think Gandhi is a good model here. The only reason he succeeded is because the British already valued democratic ideals and thus his actions caused cognitive dissonance among the British public. The same applies to the U.S. civil rights movement. A government that didn’t value these ideals would simply have executed Gandhi and MLK.
Oh, the propaganda definitely doesn’t work. I said semi-democratic for a reason—the forms of democracy are there, but they’re not doing much of anything. They are a very, very, very weak form of pressure—but that’s not the same as no form of pressure at all. Tiny incremental changes (like the constitutional change last year which didn’t change anything on the ground level but did remove the king’s supposed divine status) can eventually add up. It’s just that those add up on ridiculously slow timescales.
I guess every drop of water counts in eroding the rock...
I think we’re seeing something of the sort in China, where having idealist laws and constitution eventually give people a little leverage against corruption.
Yes! I think the essence of Ghandi’s non-violent opposition to the British was to take the British at their word. To repeat (a carefully selected) bunch of their own ideas back to them. To make them realize if they wanted to think of themselves as “good” they were going to have to address the inconsistencies between what they said and what they did.
This has also been an important part of the advance of civil rights for racial minorities in the U.S. in my personal experience. It is hard to totally ignore someone who is spouting words you believe in and not simultaneously threatening you with violence.
Ultimately in the U.S. and the West generally, these experiences of accepting differences, of inclusion, have lead to a new ideology of a positive value associated with diversity, not just a “tolerance” of it. I don’t know if you can live in the U.S. these days, with Thai restaurants and Indian and Chinese engineers, British rock stars and Polynesian beauties, and not recognize the great positive utility that diversity provides to the cooperative human enterprise.
I don’t think Gandhi is a good model here. The only reason he succeeded is because the British already valued democratic ideals and thus his actions caused cognitive dissonance among the British public. The same applies to the U.S. civil rights movement. A government that didn’t value these ideals would simply have executed Gandhi and MLK.
You wouldn’t tell that by watching a Hollywood movie
That depends on the movie.
Exactly. You can’t change social structures on your own, but you can make an appreciable difference.