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Originally Posted by ISiddiqui
Well he was a terrorist (and there is the question can terrorism be justified if facing an oppressive regime, which all sorts of modern day consequences)
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It's tough to have that debate in modern times with the modern emotions surrounding the term "terrorist", but it's the one I find the most interesting. We Americans should love a good revolution though. It's KIND of hard to put myself exactly in this position, but I figure if I was a black guy in South Africa in the 50s, I probably would not be as restrained as Mandela and the Umkhonto we Sizwe were. But, they obviously did carry out quite a bit of violence. But, I think there's a time and a place where violence is necessary. I think most people think that, we just pick and choose who we want to criticize for carrying out violence, because it's a pretty easy go-to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ISiddiqui
... but he emerged out of prison a person who wasn't into violence anymore, but was into forgiveness and that's is what really made him praiseworthy (IMO).
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And ya, of course, maybe the post-transition stuff was a more important and impressive part of his life because it's exactly what South Africa and the world needed just then, and it would have been easy to go a different way and settle more old scores. I just find the rebel stuff more interesting, maybe just because it's kind of "forbidden" and I get the feeling it's hard to find real info on it that's not either minimized or exaggerated.