Stonestone wrote: AdOrientumI understand your point about word not spreading because they would have been whisked away before anyone heard but I think you are wrong about Nazis having no chink of humanity.In Nazi Germany Ghandi would have simply disappeared the minute he opened his mouth in opposition to the regime. There would have been no press reports or international outrage. Most likely the number of people who even knew of his disappearance could be counted on the fingers of both hands. And if they didn't want to disappear too they would have kept their mouths shut.
Terror is a very effective means of maintaining order and power.
I don't believe that ordinary people in the UK at the time of Ghandi were any better or worse as individual people than were ordinary people in Germany in the Nazi period. I'm sure I read of a holocaust survivors testimony that most Nazis seemed to be careerists with no belief in what they were doing. Ordinary Germans were able to turn a blind eye. Non-violent spectacular protests of the type Ghandi advocated would have rubbed the noses of ordinary Germans in what they were allowing to happen.
I'm not even sure that a handful of such protests wouldn't have led to a word of mouth spreading of the information such that everyone would know regardless of the censors.
Nowadays with the internet I do agree we are in a stronger position in that regard and that makes warfare all the more inappropriate now.
I think you misunderstand the nature of totalitarian states. In Nazi Germany all means of mass communication were controlled by the state. Censorship was everywhere. Propaganda was so ubiquitous that it amounted to brainwashing. Children were taught in school that it was their duty to the Führer to report their parents or other family members for subversion. But most Germans strongly supported Hitler by the mid 30's. He had delivered on what they wanted, like economic security and an end to the depression along with a return of German pride after the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles. And yes, the enforcement arms of the Nazi regime (i.e. the SA, SS and the Gestapo) were pitiless brutes and sadists.
Where was this revolt of decency when Jews were beaten in public streets, their businesses and homes vandalized or destroyed, their synagogues burned down? Shortly after the war Herman Goering was being interrogated and was asked if there weren't any ordinary Germans who were opposed to the Nazi regime and Goering replied that of course there were. He was then asked where were they? And Goering replied "6 feet underground."
You should read a good history of Nazi Germany and maybe some of Stalinist Russia. Passive civil disobedience doesn't work with governments that are willing to fill mass graves.
