Revisionist Reinterpretation

[chen@intuit.com (Mark Chen)]

Blanc writes:

> Responding to msg by Jim choate, quoting another:
> 
> >> We might also add Shay's Rebellion, Bacon's 
> >Rebellion, the Hudson
> >> River Renters' Uprising, the Pullman Strike, the 
> >Homestead Strike, the
> >> Ludlow Massacre, the Lawrence Textile Strikes, etc., 
> >etc.  Many of
> >> these were full-scale insurrections.  This country's 
> >"progress" is
> >> really just a series of grudging concessions made by 
> >authoritarian
> >> power structures to various nearly catastrophic 
> >crises.
> 
> I have a hard time comparing any of these histricaly 
> important but comparatively minor events to the half a 
> million dead of the Civil War or the 50,000+ dead of 
> Vietnam. Perhaps you have extended the  analogy a 
> little too far?...
> ..........................................................
> 
> I think he was talking about the Principle of the deal, Jim -  
> about what this means regarding the relationship of the 
> citizenry to the big G.
> Put all of those insurrections together and what do they spell?
> 
>                  F _  _  _       _  _  F

Blanc is right.

You are correct, Jim, in that in terms of destruction, the wars you
mention surpass in magnitude the other events that I listed (though
I'll point out that if we count Indochinese dead, Vietnam's cost was
far higher than 55,000, even if we add in the more than 60,000 who
committed suicide in the aftermath).  What I am really saying is that
we are not, even in "normal" times, the slightly rambunctious but
contented citizenry that popular mythology makes us out to be.  This
country has serious problems, and it always has.  I think that we may
be in agreement on this.

Another good point that you've made elsewhere is the importance of
economics as a motivator.  I believe that you are exactly right.

I'd like to add more, and also to say something about the perceptive
comments from John Young, but I think I have a flu, so I'll go home
and pick this up again on Monday.

Meanwhile, wishing you all a good weekend. . . .

   - Mark -


--
Mark Chen 
chen@netcom.com
415/329-6913
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