> There were
> British plantations in Ireland going back to the thirteenth century,
> yes,
> but the systematic dispossession of that country can really be said to
> have
> begun no earlier than Cromwell.
OK, back to Cromwell, then. That's far enough for me. (And I take your correction about the Palestinians, although the AQ folks at least claim to be avenging the Crusades.) My point still stands: most Americans can't seem to remember that there ever were serious class struggles in this country, whereas other people in the world can keep struggles going for quite some time.
The attitude in this country seems to be: as soon as there is the slightest reason for claiming that you have won something, declare victory and fageddaboudit! Among women, the view seems to be, "we don't need feminism any more." Even African-Americans seem to be saying more and more, "most of us are now or soon will be in the middle class, so let's remember MLK every January on MLK Day, but otherwise fageddaboudit." I think the basic reason is that everyone in this country needs to appear as, and even more to think of themselves as, normal, OK people, just like everyone else, with no problems. There isn't a culture of a class of people frankly recognizing that they are being fucked over and need to stick together and fight, from generation to generation, if need be, as there is in most other parts of the world.
Granted, a lot of those "liberation struggles" in other parts of the world are not necessarily shining models for emulation, but at least there is some understanding there of what solidarity, just plain sticking together and keeping up the fight, means.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ After the Buddha died, people still kept pointing to his shadow in a cave for centuries—an enormous, dreadful shadow. God is dead: but the way people are, there may be, for millennia, caves in which his shadow is still pointed to. — And we — we must still overcome his shadow! —Friedrich Nietzsche