From Here to There, by David Schweickart

Dhlazare at aol.com Dhlazare at aol.com
Mon Dec 6 14:15:38 PST 1999


In a message dated 12/6/99 10:44:33 AM Eastern Standard Time, dhenwood at panix.com writes:

<<

1. It will recognize that the old models of social revolution, drawing their

inspiration from the French, Russian, Chinese and Cuban Revolutions are

largely inappropriate to the world today, even in poor countries.

>> Boy, this is sloppily worded. What does "models" mean in this context, that the French, Russian, etc. revolutions were something to be blindly emulated? Whoever said anything remotely like that? And what does "inappropriate" mean -- that they are irrelevant? To the contrary, I think they are highly relevant historical experiences whose meaning and contradictions will be analyzed and debated for generations to come. Altho the French Rev. is the oldest and therefore, presumably, the most remote, I think in some respects it is the most relevant to contemporary experience, esp. in the U.S. In contrast to the Russian, Chinese, and Cuban revolutiosn, it took place in what at the time was the heart of the developed world. If a revolution ever occurs in the U.S., it could very well wind up resembling the events in Paris in 1789-94 in certain respects more than those Petrograd in 1917, China in the 1940s, and so on.

Dan Lazare



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