Question of the day, relating to the past Fourth of July holiday. I’m borrowing from Marginal Revolution – sue me, I have a thing for economists . . .
(http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2006/07/would_i_have_su.html)
Let’s pretend that we are all living around 1773 or so. The American Revolution is fermenting here in the colonies. You are just a normal person, like you are today. You do not have the benefit of hindsight or can see into the future at all.
Would you have supported the revolution, or sided with the British?
This is a rather fascinating question, given all of the things that could have gone horribly wrong . . . what do you think? I’m curious to your answers . . .
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2 comments:
Interesting you ask this...I've often thought about what I would have done during historical times, would I have chosen the "right" side to be on.
I often worried, maybe I wouldn't, maybe I would have been just an average person watching the Jews get rounded up in Germany?
But since the Iraq war began, I've been fighting it and the other things that the Bush administration had done because it is morally wrong.
I think I would have fought the tyranny of an oppressive king, just as today I fight the tyranny of an oppressive president (also ironically named George).
It's really hard to say. It is unlikely that I would have had the benefit of extensive education (or any education, for that matter) back then, and who knows whether or not I would even have been taught to read. Since the middle class barely existed, chances are that I would have been living a hand-to-mouth existence. I guess it might have come down to a question of my personal economics and whether or not I felt I was suffering because of the British government. To quote a politician from recent history, "It's the econonmy, stupid."
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