OT: Celebrity advice

[Alex Martelli]

Tom Plunket wrote:
   ...
> How did Gandhi do it then?  Was it just that the British decided
> that they weren't mean enough to take it to its "ultimate"
> extent, or was it truly that there was a way to "go to the
> ultimate" and take back India in a nonviolent way?

I think Gandhi's methods worked against a *reasonably humane*
opponent, as the Brits were.  They didn't work against fanatics:
that's how he was killed in the end, by somebody who could not
care less about his high moral standards.  Had India been a
colony of, e.g., Nazi Germany, or Stalin's Russia, or other
powers quite willing to "go to the ultimate", he would not have
lasted long at all, IMHO.


Alex