General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Revolution anyone? This is for those among us that think we can always fall back on revolution. [View all]merrily
(45,251 posts)Thoreau refused to pay taxes to support a war and was imprisoned as a result. A relative paid bail and Thoreau was sprung and supposedly furious to be so.
Anyway, I have no problem better understanding Ghandi or Thoreau or Martin Luther King. I do have a problem with people who assume that what worked--or at least appeared to work--- in a certain era and under a specific set of conditions is going to work a century or a half century later in a totally different time, place and set of circumstances, without accounting for any of those differences.
I say appeared to work because many also tend to assume that, if X happens, then Y occurs, X must have caused Y or Y must be the result of X. It ain't necessarily so.
For example, I am not one of those who believe that demonstrations for 10 or 11 years ended the draft in the US. I think neocons ended the draft. I get pelted every time I say or post that, but it's what I believe.