Chris Bateman is a game designer with an interest in philosophy — political and otherwise — and he has decided to write a series on Civil Disobedience. He notes that Gandhi “changed the way the world viewed resistance — for perhaps the first time, non-violent action was taken seriously as a political tool.”
Steven Den Beste notes that there’s a really good reason why non-violent action was not taken seriously as a political tool before:
Nonviolent direct action is only powerful and successful in very special circumstances. Both Ghandi [sic] and King were able to use the tactics they did because they were working within what amounted to an extremely decent environment, where they could be certain that their opponent recognized very strong limits on what could be done in retaliation to them for their actions. But when the opponent recognizes no such limits, such actions are simply a very virtuous way to commit suicide. Perhaps it would get you into heaven, but it would have no measurable success here on earth. If either Ghandi [sic] or King had attempted what they did in occupied Europe in 1944, they would have been disappeared by the Gestapo and would not be even a footnote in history.