[lbo-talk] values and social change - WAS Re: Hamid Dabashi on Iran

[Miles Jackson]

SA wrote:
> The Eastern European communist parties controlled not just a fiercely 
> cohesive state but every media outlet, labor union, youth 
> organization, civic association, etc., in society - for 50 years. Yet 
> they were unable to impose to their values sufficiently to maintain 
> their system.

I'm not arguing that any time a militant minority wants to provoke 
social change, it happens.  (If so, the U. S. would be a theocracy right 
now!)   There are various important social preconditions for social 
change, many of which we don't understand very well.  I'm just saying 
that garnering the support of a clear majority before the social change 
occurs is not one of these preconditions.

Miles