On 09/21/2016 08:15 PM, Steve Kinney wrote:
Since Greed is about power, a political revolution has little if anything to do with ideology,
There's an ideological difference between communism and capitalism. Ideally communism should mean the elimination of greed as a driving force in a society. Including greed for power. However, as you described, the "American Revolution" was simply a 'transfer of pwnership of the levers of greed' from the Crown to rich white men settlers by partially force, and partially the isolation from Britain that made it simply too costly to pursue a full occupation, and perhaps forced removal of their errant subjects. If Britain wanted to, it could have sailed an armada into Boston Harbor and leveled the whole city. They didn't. There's a whole bunch of other things they could have done, including paying the Natives, whose toes were being 'stepped on', to say the least, very well, to slaughter every last guerrilla fighter hiding in the Green Mountains all the way up to Canada. There was no revolution. The same is true of India and the removal of the crown there. Rr
On 09/21/2016 10:50 PM, Razer wrote:
On 09/21/2016 06:32 PM, Steve Kinney wrote:
rulers out. That is why the Revolutionary War had the necessary organization and mass public support to succeed.
There was no American Revolution. Revolutions are based on ideology.
Greed IS NOT an ideology.
In my view, Religion is about ideology and Politics is about power. Since Greed is about power, a political revolution has little if anything to do with ideology, except in that ideological propaganda (emotionally charged fact-free bullshit) is always employed to persuade people to support and participate in revolutions - or to violently oppose them, as the propagandists' employers may direct.
("...started refusing to pay taxes and surcharges, ignoring the orders of Crown authorities, and constructing their own systems of commerce..." That favored ***THEIR*** WHITE RICH MALE interests.)
Well duh. Before the American Revolution, holders of Crown land grants were the most wealthy and powerful people in the Colonies. After the American Revolution, former holders of Crown land grants were the most wealthy and powerful people in the States. The U.S. Constitution was written for the purpose of creating a Federal authority capable of stomping down popular uprisings against abuses of power by these same de facto rulers.
American racism was invented by the same fine folks, as a response to slave uprisings earlier in Colonial history: By granting White "indentured" slaves special privileges, they successfully divided the conquered. That process has continued uninterrupted, with adaptations to accommodate changing conditions, until the present day: In Obama's Amerika, any black person with a Master's Degree or above is as good as any white person - all others pay in blood.
Which is why we need more revolutions, beginning with establishing alternative ways of life that reduce or eliminate the role of today's rulers and the passionately held, completely false Truths they dictate to our own communities. Big job? The biggest. If not for the pending collapse of the global material economy, I would call it an impossible job - vs. one of the most important jobs anyone could be working on today.