On Tue, 28 Aug 2001 10:34:34 -0700 Mistral mistral@centurytel.net writes:
ObB7: I'm not a bit certain that Blake was advocating anything approaching equality or democracy. After all, 'not until free men can think and speak' doesn't necessarily imply that all men should be free. (OK, that's weak, but "I'm tired and I hurt.")
My opinion (this week) is that Blake may have been advocating strict Republicanism (actually, this can be prone to all sorts of abuses, too, but let's not go there). Under this theory, the Federation had been sort of Republican, with officials chosen under more or less (by Blake's time, much less) democratic forms but who then had more or less autocratic powers. In Blake's time, the process had been corrupted on three counts
1) The lack of true choice in all or nearly all levels of election (either manipulation so one candidate would win or candidates who represented the same interests).
2) Limitations of electorate. Just a guess, but I'd suppose the different citizen grades had different limits in how much they could participate.
3) Erosion of traditional safe guards. Some autocrats are more autocratic than others. There may have been things which weren't rights in a legal context but that were traditionally observed in the past.
Blake, who often assumed autocratic rights on the Liberator, may have felt that people had the right to chose their own autocratics and to be fully informed when they did so. After that, they had the right to leave or follow orders.
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