antw. re Re: MDDM Gershom's Intervention

[Paul Mackin]

My reply to kai this morning was probably incomplete. The dog was pushing
me to take her for a walk. We're back now.

The idea that Gershom represents utopian possibilites against Washington and the FF's
entrenched power may have merit but it reminds me that there was actually going on in
the years following separation a very NONutopian power struggle in which Gershom might
almost (though not quite because he was a slave) be seen as representative of one of
the parties. The FFs were of the gentry class. They might have expected that the
overthrow of the monarchy and the adoption of a republican govenment would result in a
society in which their own widsom on what constituted the good life would prevail.
What they could not foresee were the consequences of the release of social constraints
that had been built into monarhical society. What emerged in the common herd was a
strong desire to have a say themselves in their own governance. Call it Jacksonian
democracy or rule by the rabble it was terribly important in the development of
American society for then and the future. No need to judge it.  Nothing that happens
in real life as opposed to utopian fantasy is an unvarnsished good.  The
disestablishment of religion, which was part and parcel, of the overthrow of the
monarchy, played a strong role in bringing more power to the common people than they
cold ever have otherwise attained.  You might say that the disetablishment of
religiion backfired on the FFs. These gentlemen tended to be deists or nonbelievers
and may have expected and even wished that the abolishment of a state church might
actually be a death blow to religion. . But exactly the opposite happened. Nonofficial
religion took hold like wildfire and became a strong force in the banding together the
common people against the powers that be. America is strill suffering from this
historical circumstance. To repeat there are no unvarished goods of bads in the real
world.

Forgive my sloppiness of expression. The sitatuation as always is full of complexities
that can't be taken into account in a post to the p-llist.

p.
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