Quote:
Originally Posted by Hasbinbad
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That's a super bad analogy. Revolutions are not trees.
If you have any doubts as to the effectiveness of nonviolent revolutionary theory as presented by Mr. Sharp, please watch "How To Start A Revolution," a documentary about the effectiveness of this book over time. It starts in Burma, goes to eastern Europe and then into northern Africa, with interviews of some of the most prominent "leaders" of the revolts that happened.. The guy that was the catalyst for the books first printing was/is? a Colonel in the Army (prominently featured in the documentary) who was trying to help the Burmese people revolt into democracy. All of the revolutionaries interviewed give at least partial credit for their revolution to the specific tactics found in the book. I'm not talking about old, tired revolutionary hippies, I'm talking about the young people who actually brought about revolutions in their countries.
These methods are honestly beyond any cultural boundries. They are universally applicable and will be effective wherever they are taken seriously. The book is couched in terms of black vs. white - dictatorship vs. democracy, because it was written specifically for the burmese people (the book is actually a somewhat hasty consolidation of Gene Sharp's lecture career at Harvard) but obviously can be applied to any of the shades of grey which exist in reality today.
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My analogy wasn't with regard to nonviolent revolution described in the PDF - its with regard to violent, foreign intervention to "spread democracy," "Make the world safe for democracy," or some such nonsense. Guns and militaries have a real purpose, but it's not to spread an ideology or to be "a global force for good" or whatever you call military force nowadays.