[WikiEN-l] bla bla

Sat Aug 28 02:25:03 UTC 2004

Eric B. Rakim wrote:

> Mr. Burling was referring to the great popular movements of the 18th, 
> 19th and 20th century that forced our governments to allow us the 
> rights we enjoy today. If it wasn't for the great thinkers and leaders 
> like Rosseau, Marx, Lenin, Benjamin Franklin, the leader of the French 
> Revolution and MILLIONS of American and Europeian nobodys that 
> actually striked and protested and got things done, then we wouldn't 
> have the rights that we have today. 

The fact that they had to be forced is certainly true.  Those that 
benefit from the prevailing system do not give it up without a fight, 
and they have access to better resources for sustaining the fight.  
Jefferson supported the US right to bear arms because he anticipated 
that tyrants would need to be overthrown. 

> And THAT, solidarity through organised struggle, IS (historically) a 
> trait of Western Culture and something to be proud of.  

Organized struggle has not been limited to the West.  Western Culture 
was more inclined to be ruthless in its suppression of such things, as 
in the massacre of the Cathars.

Ec