Where is Thomas Jefferson when you need him?
Tuesday, March 18th, 2003 01:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robinturnerI know I am getting a reputation on LJ as a Europhile anti-American pundit, but please allow me one more question.
Given that a large number of Americans are strongly opposed to their government's Middle-East bloodlust;
Given that a large number of Americans believe with good reason that the last presidential election was fraudulent;
Given that the current American government exists largely to promote the interest of the few against the many, believes in the principle of one dollar, one vote, and is a quagmire of corruption and nepotism comparable to the England of George III;
Where is the revolution?
I see many demonstrations of popular dissent, and I welcome them, like most people in the free world. But I see no strikes, no civil disobedience, no calls to arms. The current protests are a dim reflection of what we saw in the 1960s. Please read once more your Declaration of Independence. Call a strike. Boycott American goods instead of French goods. Destroy government property. Invade military bases. Physically harass a congressman. You used to be able to do it.
When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Given that a large number of Americans are strongly opposed to their government's Middle-East bloodlust;
Given that a large number of Americans believe with good reason that the last presidential election was fraudulent;
Given that the current American government exists largely to promote the interest of the few against the many, believes in the principle of one dollar, one vote, and is a quagmire of corruption and nepotism comparable to the England of George III;
Where is the revolution?
I see many demonstrations of popular dissent, and I welcome them, like most people in the free world. But I see no strikes, no civil disobedience, no calls to arms. The current protests are a dim reflection of what we saw in the 1960s. Please read once more your Declaration of Independence. Call a strike. Boycott American goods instead of French goods. Destroy government property. Invade military bases. Physically harass a congressman. You used to be able to do it.
When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
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no subject
Date: 2003-03-18 03:33 am (UTC)You're right about the silliness of much 60s radicalism. Being silly is an essential part of being a radical, I think, as you only learn by trying out new things and making mistakes. Certainly I wince when I think about some of the silly things I've supported or harmless things I've opposed. But of course once you put guns in people's hands, the silliness becomes irreversable. You can retract an accusation but not a bullet.
So yes, when I was talking about "revolution" I was thinking of strikes and civil disobedience, not minutemen. The tactics used by the American revolutionaries were appropriate to their time and opponents, perhaps, but not suitable for today.