| | Tibet's present reality paints a harsh but revealing picture of the human world.
Our ego's are inherently selfish; but as individuals most of us have been nurtured to develop higher values of justice, empathy, morality, kindness and forgiveness. This usually happens through religion. However, as groups, we tend to override these safeguards and be even more selfish, cruel and destructive than as individuals. I believe there is something about others agreeing with us that makes us feel good even after knowing deep inside that we're wrong.
This is just my opinion. In most of human history, there have been genocides over materialistic or egoistic gains. Countless humans have been systematically murdered, enslaved, raped, tortured, abused, etc. As much as 60-70 years ago it was perfectly okay to militarily dominate a weaker society and exploit them for wealth. The richest nations of today are guilty of it. We're sufficiently evolved to plot the course of humanity entirely off vegetation and dairy, yet most of us continue to consume processed meat for which countless animals are put through unspeakable torture. Today, just because information is so freely available it is that we are even speaking of the "issue" of Tibet.
Back in the day, when Gandhi resisted the British non violently, it worked in a very limited manner because the British had some empathy. However, I dont think Gandhi had much to do with India getting freedom. It was pure mathematics that forced the British back to England. It was no longer economically viable to "colonize" India, as they had already extracted whatever they could and it was demanding to maintain such a far off colony.
As for Tibet, as you rightly say it : The Chinese govt/populace does not give a hoot if all the Tibetan people immolate together. Not sure about today, but decades ago they had zero morality when they systematically destroyed monasteries and raped the nuns. They will be all the more happy for it not having to deal with bad press and protesters anymore. They simply value the material gain over everything they can possibly lose, and today even India accepts Tibet as China. Every nation in the world knows this is Injustice, but we're all going to be passive observers. At most we will pledge our support and give hope, but nothing more because in our largest groups, as nations, we're too happy to bother about someone else's problems: ie: we display the most selfish behavior.
The Tibetan patriots/monks have no voice and this is the only way they can keep the cause alive. It's easy for you to talk about giving up, but for Tibetans there will always be an irreplaceable void in their hearts until they are home. DL sees the immolations as a manifestation of the desperation Tibet's people. He still has hope that he can peacefully return to Tibet with some kind of joint-ownership status.
I dont know much about Israel/Palestine conflict, but that gets way more attention than it deserves compared to Tibet. |