Forum Post: Three Years We Should Study Carefully
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 2, 2011, 7:41 p.m. EST by qwiksilver
(46)
from Los Angeles, CA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
1789 1917 1947
And the times leading up to them.
We need to learn what caused those years to be so volatile. What made the people finally snap. And how we can take what they did and make it work. Distill what came before us into something better. Something even more revolutionary.
1789 In France or The United States?
France. They took our revolution (revolutionary in so many ways) and ran with it. Their revolution was even more revolutionary because they were not a colony kicking out a "foreign" king. They beheaded their actual, local one, along with whatever aristocrat they could get their fingers on. (England beheaded one over one hundred years prior, but brought his son back not long after Cromwell's death and continued business as usual.) The French were starving, the bourgeoise (middle class) and poor were drowning under a heavy tax burden, the wealthy and the Church paid nothing. The country was mired in debt from several wars including the meddling in the affair between Britain and its recalcitrant colony (a debt we can never repay). Except for the starving part, things are sounding oddly familiar...
There is nothing familiar.
The French in those days didn't just murder aristocrats. They murdered many people. Almost all of them completely innocent.
To view what went on in France (especially during the 'Reign of Terror') with any kind of affinity or wishful thinking, indicates a level of sociopathy or outright mental illness on your part.
French Revolution, Soviet Revolution, Chinese Revolution.
We need to become more like China, like I have been saying.
They studied what Soviet Russia did wrong, what we are doing wrong, and adjusting accordingly.
Astute.
And I was thinking we should study how India got its independence....go with that. Minus the messy religious and ethnic bloodshed.
They created a dictatorial capitalist economy. I wouldn't like America to become like that. I just think American wages and labor laws have to come in line with current prevalent practices in the world economy.
Why would you pick those years? Just FYI the end of the Revolutionary War, the nearly the end of WWII and the end of WWII. War creates angst. I.e. 2011 nearing the end of two wars in the middle east over the last decade. See a pattern?
He doesn't mean USA centric. He means: 1789 - France, 1917 - Russia, 1947 - India.
He might well have added 1915 - Ireland, which was particularly anomalous as their revolution happened at a fairly dire point in WW1.
All of them were instances of over handed government, lack of freedom, and corruption. Just like we have now. And what did the people do? they rejected the ruling class completely. In the instance of Russia however they allowed one ruling class to be replaced with another. It was an abysmal failure. The lesson should be, plan out what you want to achieve, and what will happen as a result of any action.
Like I said, the years leading up to them. What put them in motion, what were the tools they used and what was the end result?
What can we glean from their experience?
I just told you. Leading up to 1789 was the revolutionary war. After the war, there was a debate on the role of the government and what their powers should be. 1917 was nearing the end of WWI after several years of war. The biggest war the world had ever seen, and nobody had ever conceived of. America and other countries were in shock at the devastation and destruction they had seen. In Russia the people suffered under the Czars and took matters into their own hands. 1947 was the end of WWII and the world had just witnessed some of the greatest atrocities in history, far overshadowing what they had seen in WWI. These were world altering events for the most part. What we should glean from their experience was that the people came together as a country and did not pit citizens against each other. We should learn that the OWS and the Tea Party should embrace and merge their common interest of removing the power of Wall Street and the corruption in Washington. Both of these movement have that exact same goal. Both of these movements has been usurpt by the Dems or GOP. They should both reject the two parties, or we will continue to see the atrocities we have witnessed.
See, we can find things from the past to use as our tool kit. We know what works and what doesn't. Use what works and toss the rest.
Something to learn from the Native Americans: Divided; we are massacred. They never coalesced into a single body but kept their traditional hatreds. This country needs to be stitched back together as Americans instead of parties. There are groups, parties and media outlets who will do everything to fight that idea, but it has to be done.
History is one huge toolbox for us to use.