I watched the film Ghandi
with Sir Ben Kingsley. It portrays
Ghandi amazing.
If you’ve ever had your
paradigm shifted you know that before it shifted you were ignorant. Once shifted you may be angry that you were
ignorant, then you may try and share what you learned with others, and
unfortunately many people may not give a rats behind as to what you have to
say, and when that happens you may get depressed. What one would hope to happen if that happens is that someone in
that situation would make the final step and realize they’re the only they can
change/worry about and it isn’t their duty to force a shift in another’s
paradigm. Certainly one would help with
the shift if there were curiosity or a desire to do so from another
individual. Hence why missionaries go
out, schools exist, and life/business coaches exist.
So I feel like things in the
world are crazy. News flash I know
lol. In the midst of the craziness and
becoming aware of certain parts of the crazy I eventually came to the above
realization, i.e. that I can only change myself. Some advocate for that, but also think that retaliation/violence
is a way to accomplish that. My
conclusion is that may only exacerbate the problem and extend the current
paradigm’s way of doing things. This
led me to Ghandi and doing things a different way in the face of
craziness/oppression.
So I gobbled up the movie
Ghandi. Reason being is that I had been
taught/told/portrayed to that he was a very strong proponent of civil
disobedience, non-violence, and equality for all. Then I listened to a show that discussed some of the not so known
history of Ghandi.
For starters the government
of India actually funded a large portion of the production of Ghandi and of
course the string that was attached to that was that he only be painted in a
very positive light. Turns out dude was
crazy racist towards blacks and the very low class of Indians. He was married at a very young age. At that time he was caring for his
father. One time when being intimate
with his wife he came back to find his father had died and apparently blamed
himself for that for years and years and his intimacy with the wife either
almost died off completely or was gone.
What wasn’t shown/portrayed at all about the guy is that he thought he
needed to prove his strength for resisting sex after this incident by sleeping
naked with people, family and very young girls included when he was really old,
and he’d ask them to massage him and his goal was to not get aroused. Turns out this so disgusted some of his
inner circle that they left him.
Shortly after learning about
this I also learned about Nelson Mandela and some of his craziness. As disclosure I didn’t really look up to
Nelson. What I will say though for Nelson
and Ghandi is that they’re both figures that are pedaled out to us as these
great guys that we should look up to and admire and follow. When I learned the other side of these guy’s
lives, including the life of MLK, I realized that anything popular these days
probably isn’t what it is all cracked up to be. Which is kinda crazy to think about considering I’ve spent the
past two or three years learning about things that aren’t really what they
seemed and yet I seemed to gobble up Ghandi.
Well unfortunately I’m not really gonna let that happen. I will continue to listen to all and follow
none and try and take the good from the bad.
Thank goodness for the
perfect example.
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