Eric B. Rakim wrote:
Mr. Burling was referring to the great popular
movements of the 18th,
19th and 20th century that forced our governments to allow us the
rights we enjoy today. If it wasn't for the great thinkers and leaders
like Rosseau, Marx, Lenin, Benjamin Franklin, the leader of the French
Revolution and MILLIONS of American and Europeian nobodys that
actually striked and protested and got things done, then we wouldn't
have the rights that we have today.
The fact that they had to be forced is certainly true. Those that
benefit from the prevailing system do not give it up without a fight,
and they have access to better resources for sustaining the fight.
Jefferson supported the US right to bear arms because he anticipated
that tyrants would need to be overthrown.
And THAT, solidarity through organised struggle, IS
(historically) a
trait of Western Culture and something to be proud of.
Organized struggle has not been limited to the West. Western Culture
was more inclined to be ruthless in its suppression of such things, as
in the massacre of the Cathars.
Ec