On Tue, 3 Apr 2001, Jim Choate wrote:
That the populate in general will find a way to resolve the disparities and problems by simple understanding and toleration.
Has anyone ever done a study - a worthwhile, entertaining, informative, cautionary study - of rhetoric employed by revolutionaries? The "simple understanding and toleration" here makes me think of other solutions which have been put forth as "simple"; other principles of "brotherly love" or perhaps "universal peace" which I associate with radical and reform texts from the late 1800s and early 1900s (though, alas, without examples to draw on right now - I want to say Sinclair's _The Jungle_ and Emma Goldman's essays) Also the great rhetorical question "WHAT IS TO BE DONE?" comes to mind - the punch line after a description of the sorry state of the world, often accompanied implicitly or explicitly with a helpful list of answers. Great projects set in motion, called to action by this question, hell-bent on applying the "simple" principles set forth, presumably validated, previously. We (who?) know how those projects turned out, don't we? The point is -- I'm not sure that using this kind of rhetoric is helpful to anyone any more. Independent of what the argument at hand is. thanks, -David