Hmmm.... a choice between a non-existent mythical creature who is worshipped by a cadre of slaves, or a real human being who brought about real positive changes to a nation and culture. That's a tough choice indeed. Hmm... which way should I go? There is definitely fun to be had with violence, especially keyboard karate (who can doubt that after noting the responses on the 9/11 "conspiracy" theory threads), and the Western Left does offer the right lingo to get one going (conspiracy theory, petit bourgeoisie philistinism, etc --- good one, by the way... though I felt fucking wackos was more direct -- but each has its positives without doubt) ... but much as I would enjoy murdering eunuchs, old chap, I think I will choose Gandhi for now. But please don't let that stop you from murdering dead souls or other such global intellectual enterprises!
For the rest of the list:
It's funny how these religious myths work. The camp of Duryodhana is supposed to be filled with beasts, and one of the gems of the Gita is Krishna's advice to Arjuna that the latter should get on with the bloody business because it is his (Arjuna's) duty and hesitation and thought are to be postponed (Hmm... where have we heard that before... Iraq war... anyone? anyone?). But there are other ways to view these things, as they do down in the south, e.g Tamil Nadu, where the Dravidians, referred to by northern authors as vanars (by some accounts), i.e., un-Aryan monkeys, have quite a different reading of a text like the Ramayana, seeing as much, if not more, virtue in the devil of that tale, Ravana, as the hero Rama, and idols of the "monkey" god Hanuman tower to 100s of feet over the few dimunitive instances of temples to Rama (Rama, if you recall, being the Hindu "god" whose alleged birthplace prompted the Hindutva hoards to destroy a mosque and incite the current cycle of Indian progroms). So perhaps you can take away a different message from the Gita than the killing of eunuchs, as Gandhi might say.
--ravi
-- Support something better than yourself: ;-) PeTA: http://www.peta.org/ GreenPeace: http://www.greenpeace.org/ If you have nothing better to do: http://platosbeard.org/