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Forum Post: Gandhi knew the process quite well: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

Posted 11 years ago on Dec. 31, 2012, 3:55 a.m. EST by therising (6643)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

"Sooner or later it'll all come down Because you can't. . . push. . . people around." ~Poet Bongo Jerry

"The moral arc of the universe bends towards justice." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Oh what a new day" "There's a natural mystic flowing through the air. . . if you listen carefully now, you will hear." ~ Bob Marley

"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead

"Man has been broken up into self-contained individuals, each of whom retreats into his lair. . . he has split off from the whole and become an isolated unit; . . & only [worries] that the wealth and privileges he has accumulated may get lost. . . [But] the security of the individual cannot be achieved by his isolated efforts but only by mankind as a whole. . . AN END to this fearful isolation is bound to come and all men will understand how unnatural it was for them to have isolated themselves from one another." - Dostoevsky

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” - Gandhi

49 Comments

49 Comments


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[-] 3 points by jph (2652) 11 years ago

good timely quotes,. thanks ;)

"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead

[-] 2 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

Cheers. I took the liberty of adding that excellent quote.

[-] 1 points by cJessgo (729) from Port Jervis, PA 11 years ago

In some cases this is true.In others it is not.Some days you get the Bear,other days the Bear gets you.

[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

Well, if you give in, the bear has already got you. In some ways, deciding to engage in the revolutionary act of speaking up means you've already won.

[-] 1 points by nomdeguerre (1775) from Brooklyn, NY 11 years ago

Do you really believe the "moral arc of the universe bends toward justice"? Human nature doesn't change. The corpoRATs and their CEOs couldn't wait to take advantage again of near slave labor conditions.

[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

Oh yes. I absolutely am convinced that the "moral arc of the universe bends towards justice.". That doesn't mean that we don't have to work hard and fight for it. The deluded nihilists only get away with their crimes against us if we let them. After all, for every one of them, there are 99 of us. I like those odds :)

More and more people across the country are waking up. At one point last fall, numerous mainstream news outlet polls showed 40-50% of the American public supported Occupy Wall Street. There is a silent majority out there and little by little they are growing less and less silent. People are speaking up (partly thanks to the example set by Occupy.

Make no mistake. The jig is up. We are going to win this. To paraphrase Gandhi - First they ignored us. Then they laughed at us. Now they are fighting us. Next we will win.

[-] 1 points by nomdeguerre (1775) from Brooklyn, NY 11 years ago

I can't agree that we are at the "they are fighting us" stage. We have no real power. I think they still "laugh at us" but are very worried.

I do agree that we will win however. Of course it won't be easy.

[-] 2 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

Well, I get your point and see how you might put it that way. I really do. But they sure were fighting us with all that propaganda, all those riot police in the parks and statehouses and with this http://occupywallst.org/forum/police-dhs-working-for-with-banks-to-target-neutra/ .

We have no real power? Then what was with the riot police? What were they so afraid of if we don't represent a powerful force.

[-] -1 points by VQkag2 (16478) 11 years ago

Of course. Things are better than 50 years ago which was better than 50 years before that.

slow progress, setbacks, but always forward. It is unstoppable.

[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

By the way, thanks for putting your second and third link next to each other. The juxtaposition of the two is pretty remarkable.

[-] 1 points by FawkesNews (1290) 11 years ago

Thank you for noticing. I found the profundity profound.

[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

Seeing the repetition over the decades makes me all the more resolved to help break the cycle in whatever small ways possible.

[-] 1 points by FawkesNews (1290) 11 years ago

If that sort of history is allowed to repeat itself, humankind is in endangered.

Education is the only solution because, the ignorant are the most adamant believers of what is undoubtedly wrong.

[-] 2 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

So true

[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

It depends on your definition of dead. We all die, of course. But as someone once said, the tragedy isn't that we all die. It's that some of us never live at all. Some of us are sometimes sleepwalking through life (myself included). Biko was not. He was wide awake. He was alive. He lived. And that's more than many of us can say.

We should honor his memory not by drowning in fear and sleep but by speaking up ourselves. They can't arrest us all, now can they?

[-] 2 points by FawkesNews (1290) 11 years ago

You can blow out a candle...But you can't blow out a fire...Once the flames begin to catch...The wind will blow it higher...Peter Gabriel

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."...Samuel Adams

They can arrest and beat to death enough to either suppress resistance or strengthen it. Both have been historically implemented with expected results.

[-] 2 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

Man gets tired

Spirit don't

Man surrenders

Spirit won't

Man crawls

Spirit flies

Spirit lives when man dies

:::::::

Man seems

Spirit is

Man dreams

The spirit lives

Man is tethered

Spirit is free

What spirit is man can be

::::::

Lyrics from The Waterboys "Spirit"

[-] 1 points by FawkesNews (1290) 11 years ago

Yet another touching ditty to comfort the soul.

Thanks.

[-] -1 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 11 years ago

Feed the Spirit - tis a wondrous thing - insubstantial in seeming - yet able to perform miracles of great strength ( and beauty ) from normally average or weak individuals in a split second of commitment to a task.

[-] 2 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

I agree. All we need to do is enter the flow.

[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

    Margaret Mead

[-] 1 points by FawkesNews (1290) 11 years ago

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live...Martin Luther King, Jr.

Imagine all those murdered in the same fashion, for the same reason, as Steven Biko, without any recognition. It is their bravery that makes positive social change inevitable.

[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

True.

[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

King explained the use of active non-violent resistance as follows in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”:

"Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks to so dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. . . The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.”

[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

Gandhi and King always seemed to have the ability to pull off focused organized actions -- always nonviolent -- and have the press at just the right place at the right time.

[-] 0 points by VQkag2 (16478) 11 years ago
[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

Thanks for the link. Will check it out.

[-] 0 points by VQkag2 (16478) 11 years ago

The Mahatma rules.

"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history". Mahatma Ghandi

[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

That's beautiful!! :-). Wow. Gives you shivers just reading it, the same shivers you felt when spending time at Zuccotti Park.

[-] -1 points by VQkag2 (16478) 11 years ago

I remember well. Especially when they let us back in. That was awesome, victorious, momentous.

A different time, different strategy, encampments created too many negative affects. We are currently in the midst of evolving.

[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

I really think we have an amazing combo at our fingertips: http://occupywallst.org/forum/we-dont-see-the-power-we-have-in-our-hands-to-tran/ . We can use the mainstream media and at the same time also circumvent them!

[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 11 years ago

I think individual actions the way King and Gandhi did it with very specific focus and message is the ticket. Both of them and their fellow activists knew just how to have the press in the right spot at the right time. They, along with Gene Sharp, have given us the handbook. Plus we have the added benefit of the web / social media. We can do this.

[-] -2 points by aville (-678) 11 years ago

Gandhi was no candidate for sainthood. His reputation as a visionary leader rests mainly on half truths about his wildly inconsistent and often senseless views on noviolence. While German panzers rolled virtually unopposed toward the English Channel in June of1940, he published an open letter advising the British govt. to surrender to the Nazis and oppose them later by organizing huge public demonstrations. (Gandhi's domestic agenda reflected the same oblivion to harsh reality:his scheme to close Indias textile mills- the country's only large scal employers- would have created staggering job losses and hunger on a scale massive even by third worldstandards) He once said that he " would not flinch from sacrficing a million lives for india's liberty".

[-] 0 points by VQkag2 (16478) 11 years ago

Liberty is that important!!

And it is not a half truth he single handedly organized theretreat ofthe most powerful empire in the world right?

That's a whole truth.! LOL A whole lotta truth!!!

The Mahatma rules! The british exploiting, occupiers drool!

[-] -1 points by aville (-678) 11 years ago

if gandhi hadnt interfered with his "protests" britain would have given india its independence in right after WWII or as soon as 1942. he also refused to educate his wife, or son, thought that sex during marriage ( after a few kids were produced) was adultery, wanted to have laws passed to prohibit sex after kids ahd been produced) refused to let his wife have Medical treatment ( "gods will", she died within days ) but took it for himself.

[-] 1 points by VQkag2 (16478) 11 years ago

Bullshit!

[-] -1 points by aville (-678) 11 years ago

do your own research, its true.

[-] 0 points by VQkag2 (16478) 11 years ago

I know that history well enough to know you are full of shit.

[-] -1 points by aville (-678) 11 years ago

If you really knew history you would that i'm telling you the truth.

[-] 0 points by VQkag2 (16478) 11 years ago

Oh well now that IS convincing!

LMFAO. You don't know what you're talkin about! British never would have left india if not for the great Mahatma Ghandi.

[-] -2 points by aville (-678) 11 years ago

gandhi was no candidate for sainthood.

[-] 0 points by VQkag2 (16478) 11 years ago

I'm an atheist, I don't really believe in sainthood.

But Gandhi did kick those sorry exploitive British imperialists ass. Right?

[-] -2 points by aville (-678) 11 years ago

No, they would have left anyway. gandhi was a self centered mysogynist.

[-] 0 points by VQkag2 (16478) 11 years ago

You are absolutely wrong. And you know it. Imperialist British got their ass kicked and that whuppin led to the end of many other occupations, so Gandi is responsible for MORE than just the defeat in India.

[-] -1 points by aville (-678) 11 years ago

you really should stop reading revisionist history

[-] 0 points by VQkag2 (16478) 11 years ago

You're the one pushing "what woulda been" are you kidding?

Try to stick with reality. British imperialist got their ass kicked by a little brown man with no weapons.

LOL

[-] -1 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 11 years ago

I don't think he was catholic - so you are no doubt correct about that.

[-] -2 points by aville (-678) 11 years ago

o.k. he was a deeply flawed person, a mysogynist and self centered.