The degree of wisdom and truly "evolved" thinking demonstrated in this letter is deeply inspiring. Simultaneously, it conversely seems to support the idea that you can't really reason with fascists because their hunger for power (and destruction) is essentially insatiable and they won't stop because someone spoke some convincing words.

Not putting too fine a point on it, but Gandhi's non-violent resistance worked in the India of his time, because the British wanted both the labor and the natural resources, and killing all the former would simply have cost them.

In Gaza and Ukraine right now, the colonial powers simply want the territory, and are largely indifferent or are openly hostile to the continued physical existence of the people who live there.

This made me tear up a bit.

May we all be able to approach those with whom we disagree with such clear eyes and full hearts.

My father was born in Patiyalla, Punjab and at a time just before WW2, Gandi ji would make it his habbit to stay and rest in a small leanto, attached to the back of a local mosque in Patiyala, and while there, he forbade contact with adults. So familys would send.there children to sit at the great mans feet. My father was the child of land owners and went to be there with Ghandi ji, but things did not go well for him, he sat with the children of the other worthies in this hut, very likely feeling out out, when another small child ducked in, upon which my father told this child "get out bunghi" ,bunghi bieng a slur against the class and caste of thus child, and dismissing such was(and is) something that my father is accustomed to. Ghandu ji, spoke up and said ,"NO!, you are a bhungi, we are all bhungi!" and brought this child to sit beside him facing the rest. And in the ensuing years, with the war and partition, and my family going through horror and 17 or our close and extended family dieing, has left me with some different views. Ghandi did try, but it is his signature beside that of mountbattens, that precipitated a war of ethnic clensing in the break up of india.Hitler and stallin would be envious of the body count that came after that signature. And the best I can say for Ghandi is that at the crucial moment, he blinked.

I recently learned of the three poisons in Buddhism: ignorance, greed, and hatred. Buddhists consider these as the roots of all evils and something that plague all minds, from the lowliest animals to the noblest sages and even gods.

It is easy to see these poisons in the events leading to the rise of Hitler. The ignorance of racial characteristics, the greed of land and power, the hatred of foreigners, they are all so obvious now.

What is more disturbing is how the same poisons seem to be widely popular nowadays and many, including some of the most powerful people in the world, appear to actively embrace them.

Edit: This seems a more controversial opinion than I expected...