| Subject: |
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Re: semi-agreement |
| Name: |
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Simon |
| Date Posted: |
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Mar 13, 06 - 12:03 PM |
| Email: |
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srheywood@ukonline.co.uk |
| Message: |
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Sorry for the delay! For a fuller answer try peacepays.org. and the links, especially from the "Europe" page on that site.
Basically: your question assumes that violence is the only way of forcing anyone to do something: if you avoid violence, all you can do is ask nicely. But in fact you can use force without violence. The Berlin Wall fell without violence, and not because anybody asked the Communist parties nicely to knock it down. Nobody invaded South Africa to end apartheid, and nobody really asked the National Party nicely. And so forth. There are more examples on peacepays.org - a striking one is the nonviolent demonstrations in Berlin in the 1940s, which resulted in 2000 Jews being freed from Auschwitz, because the SS couldn't face the embarrassment of firing on German crowds. There was a lot of this sort of stuff in Germany: go-slows, strikes, etc. but it was very poorly supported internationally. The great and good of Europe were too busy praising Hitler to the skies and selling him raw materials. Churchill was unusual in standing out alone against Hitler which is partly why he is so revered by many people today.
If shooting Hitler was the only thing that could have stopped WW2, *perhaps* Hitler should have been shot. In fact there was a German plot for a coup in 1938 which (so goes the argument) could have avoided the war, but it failed for lack of British support in the era of Chamberlain and appeasement. |
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