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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: "Reds" vs "fascists":Reagan's remarks
Message-ID: <1774@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 20-Jan-86 19:31:03 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.1774
Posted: Mon Jan 20 19:31:03 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Jan-86 00:11:04 EST
References: <1783@teddy.UUCP> <39000044@ISM780B.UUCP> <449@whuts.UUCP> <351@cisden.UUCP> <459@whuts.UUCP> <452@ssc-bee.UUCP> <485@whuts.UUCP21 Jan 86 00:31:03 GMT
Reply-To: mmt@dciem.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE)
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
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Summary: 


>> Tim, what is your opinion on the American Revolution and the Civil War?
>
>I think the American Revolution was exactly the sort of situation in
>which Gandhian tactics of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience
>could have been successful.  The Americans won the American revolution
>essentially because most of the population was in sympathy with
>the revolutionaries.  Despite Britain's advantage in military might
>per se the revolutionaries had the advantage of the people's positive
>support for their cause and resistance to the British.

I was taught in (English, Scottish and Canadian) schools that the
American Revolution had the support of about 1/3 of the population,
but had substantial support in Britain, including that of the King
(the hated George III) but not of his Government.  Whether civil
disobedience would have been successful in righting the wrongs of
the colonies is dubious, since it could have had no effect on policies
in England.  It could have affected only the actions and policies of
the Colonial governors.  What MIGHT have worked would have been a
good public relations campaign among the landowners in England, leading
to an election win for a group supporting American self-government
(in effect, the American Colonies had substantial self-government
before the Revolution, and much of the fuss was about the British
Government's insistence that it had some right to tax without consulting
the Colonies.  The revolutionaries didn't want to acknowledge those
rights. Whether the Americas became freer after the Revolution than
they would otherwise have been is an interesting question that I don't
think anyone can easily answer.)
-- 

Martin Taylor
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