On Sun, 18 Feb 2001, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> Why do you think that the everyday life of Revolutionary America is
> so markedly different -- in fact opposite to -- that of Revolutionary
> France?
The religious situations of the two revolutions couldn't have been more different. In France, you had an all or nothing hierarchical church that was identifed with the old regime, embodied in a counter-revolutionary class, and conspiring with counterrevolutionary foreign powers. In America, you had a well-established religious tolerance that was identified with the forces of revolution and was a matter of national pride.
There is no necessary connection between atheism and revolutions. The English revolution didn't have any. Nor did the American Civil War, which I thought most dialectical materialists considered our "true" bourgeois revolution for comparative purposes. Conversely, the most stirring hymn to revolutionary atheism I've ever read is Shelley's Queen Mab, which was written when his country was politically frozen over.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com