Historically, revolutions have been a common method for the oppressed masses to escape tyrannical leaders. Nearly all forms of government have shown a propensity to decay towards oppression of their subjects. Some tend to decay very quickly, while others can take a very long time. One thing that is very common is that the governments that replace the oppressive governments are often as bad or worse than the original governments.
In feudal Europe, revolutions were generally led by nobles that wanted to control the government themselves. The nobles often felt that they were oppressed by the royalty, but when they succeeded in taking control they were as bad or worse. These revolutions did not generally have the support of the general population, except so far as the nobles had control over them.
Many other revolutions did have the support of the general populace. Sometimes these revolutions were incited by members of the oppressed lower classes, but many times, these revolutions were incited by people with a lust for power, who were able to use the oppression of the government to convince the lower classes to band together. Whichever the case, most revolutions have ended up with leaders who did not have the interest of the general populace in mind. In short, most revolutions have become engines for putting people aspiring to gain control into power. These are most often people who care as little or less than the previous government for the general populace. Again, most revolutions end with a worse government than the one that is overthrown.
So, now for the question: Why is this? When people overthrow their government to escape tyranny, why do they put up with someone worse? How do these aspiring tyrants gain control of the revolutions in the first place? Why don't good people stop them? The answer is that good people tend to oppose revolution, even when they are obviously oppressed.
Out of the many revolutions in the world, the American Revolution was an exception to this. No aspiring tyrant with ulterior motives got control of this revolution. The government that this revolution eventually established was a government that, for the most part, did care about the general populace. How was this revolution different from the vast majority? How did this revolution end up being lead by good people, instead of people trying to gain absolute control of the general population?
The answer is very complicated. First, the population of the American colonies at the time was mostly people trying to escape tyranny. The population was small, and the technology level was inferior to that of Europe. People desiring control like to have a lot of people to control, and stuff (read: technology) to make them more powerful. In short, the American colonies were not very tempting, so few aspiring tyrants bothered coming. The result was a population of people who valued freedom and were not interested in controlling everyone else (right, there were some Puritan sects that did try to control people, but this was a vast minority). This was not everything though. Many good people did oppose the revolution, on moral grounds. This is one of the strongest reasons that revolutions tend to be led by people without ethics.
As the American Revolution began to turn into a significant force, there were many good people who opposed it, on religious grounds. Religious discussions on the subject were very common. In the New Testament, there are many passages that establish the importance of government and of being subject to government. Many people took this to mean that God wanted them to submit to the oppressive British government. Many preachers urged pacifism and submission, on religious grounds. One of the big breaking points were a few preachers that took the same scriptures to mean something different. The same scriptures used to suggest that revolution was a violation of Biblical principals were taken by other preachers to mean that the people should submit only to righteous governments. These preachers became very popular among good people, because the people saw that there was a problem. These preachers were not the typical aspiring tyrants trying to get control. They were part of the general populace that wanted freedom for themselves and everyone else. Without them, any revolution probably would have been controlled by someone with ulterior motives. Instead, a lot of good people were convinced that they had not only a right to overthrow an oppressive government, but a moral responsibility to do so. Instead of a lot of angry rabble rebelling against an oppressive government by rioting in the streets and rushing government buildings, only to put in a worse government, the American Revolution was led by good, intelligent, and organized people, who only had a desire to free themselves and everyone else from the government that was oppressing them, and to establish a free government that did not oppress the people.
Revolutions require the participation of good people to be truly successful. If a government is truly corrupt and oppressive, the people have the responsibility for correcting the situation. When the majority does not feel oppressed, they have a responsibility to fight against revolution. When the majority does feel oppressed, the good people are responsible for being involved in correcting the problem. If good people refuse to be involved in just revolution, then they are just as responsible for whatever oppression the new government creates as if they had actively helped that government come into power.
"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." When good men support oppressive governments, because they don't want to get involved, or because they believe that their religion opposes self defense, they are as guilty for the oppression as those in power. We are responsible for recognizing when a government has become oppressive. We are responsible for doing whatever we can to defend our freedom. Sometimes we can assert our authority through our voice and our vote. Other times, we must assert our authority with violence. Are we going to be those people who are eternally oppressed because we find self defense to be distasteful, or are we going to assert our authority by defending our right live without oppression?
Lord Rybec
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