Posted by:
Troy
(
)
Date: October 21, 2010 10:38PM
Today was a rather exciting day for me as a political philosopher. My friend Deen Chatterjee is out of town so I had both class periods to myself. Deen does a wonderful job and as a political philosopher, he has the kind of moral clout that someone like Boyd K Packer can only dream of. But I am always itching for the opportunity to spread my love of wisdom.
We are discussing human rights and the way justice holds them all in balance. If you haven't seen me give this lecture, name the time and buy me a cup of coffee and you'll hear more than you ever imagined could be said about human rights. But this is no ordinary job to me. I found out several years ago that ordinary jobs kept me going back to the hospital with depressive episodes so profound I could barely speak.
The political theories that really have staying power, as I have discovered, are the ones that have human rights and justice at their core. Most of the contemporary debate has been sparked by the two most profound events of the 20th Century. One was the holocaust and the other was the struggle for independence in India. The defining moral figure for the 20th Century was my moral hero. Some called him Mahatma Gandhi, I now call him Bapu.
Philosophy in my life has truly been a story of agony and ecstacy. Today, the latter was the case. I've never stood in front of an audience and expressed my appreciation for Bapu before today and right there in front of everyone I had to stop and struggle to regain my speech. I had tears pouring down my face. What kind of person would willfully take one beating after another just to prove a moral point? He let them beat him nearly to death because he knew they would see the evil of their ways and they would have to change. And when millions of people were engulfed in uncontrollable violence, he simply said he would not eat until they stopped. A whole nation was brought to their knees at the thought of losing Bapu. He was a tiny little man in a loincloth, but he had more political power than anyone else in his time. The thing that ultimately took him down was, you guessed it, religious fanaticism! He brought more peace into that nation than the religiously-powerful could tolerate. And he never accepted a penny for it. Instead, his material reward was several grams of lead, delivered right into his perfect heart.
To the child-brides of polygamy, Bapu knew your pain. And if I have my way, I'll teach every one of you about this extraordinary hero of mine.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2010 11:00PM by Troy.