> Weren't they supported by like 40% of the population? That is not a small group of militants.
>
>
> --- On Tue, 6/23/09, Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu> wrote:
>
>> Thanks--you're making my point for me! Even though
>> the American Revolution was initially supported by a
>> minority of the population in the colonies, the political
>> success of the militants eventually created a society in
>> which their minority viewpoint became widely held.
Well, this highlights the tautological aspect of Miles' argument. If you assume that any social arrangement, once established, somehow automatically generates its own popular consent then *by definition* any new social arrangement must reflect ideas that were once in the minority. Of course, this formula has a bit of trouble explaining how the previous arrangement, which was supposed to generate its own popular consent, could have broken down in the first place.
SA