From subjects to citizens

Charlie Grapski just posted this over at the big blog.

You guys may know the story about the American Revolutionary Army under Washington.

Early on - things were looking bleak - as Washington camped his troops at Valley Forge. The well-meaning, but ill-equipped army (the real problem however was poorly trained army - rather than just the equipment ... which was exagerated a bit by Washington in an effort to get more support from Congress). They were holding on ... but the British were dominating - and many thought the effort would eventually fail.

Then - before the French were brought in by Franklin (a BIG boost - not only strategically (diverting the British forces into sending troops down to the Indies - to prevent the WORLD WAR from giving the French an opportunity to take away some of the British possessions) but also in MORALE) - Franklin had an even greater impact.

He went to the PRUSSIAN ARMY (the best then in the world - even better than the other big guy - the British) - and recruited "Baron" and "General" von Steuben.

Of course - this was a little "fib" of Franklin - who knew the "aristocratic" military leadership would not accept someone of lesser status - as he really was not a General or a big Noble - but more of a DRILL SERGEANT (he was actually a Captain).

But von Steuben, who spoke NO ENGLISH, came and DRAMATICALLY CHANGED the American revolutionaries into a world-class army - nearly overnight!

He was faced with a daunting challenge - one that most people would view as futile. How to turn, in short time and with little resources, a rag-tag group into a professional military that could realistically stand up to one of the world's greatest military powers?

He knew he could not train EVERY single soldier overnight. So he established a MODEL army. He focused on a small group - and trained them into a TOP-NOTCH force in a short time.

The MODEL then was SPREAD throughout the forces.

And thus - we WON our independence!

Well - we have a SIMILAR situation facing us again. Again - facing a tyranical power, again being relatively untrained (as citizens), and feeling disempowered ... we have a daunting challenge in front of us - FOR THE FUTURE.

Thus - this campaign will be like building a MODEL ARMY OF CITIZENS. Training us to no longer act like mere SUBJECTS (passive receptors of the policy decisions of OTHERS who rule over us) and into an EFFECTIVE force of CITIZENS (who rule themselves).

That is how we RESTORE our democracy - and REPLACE (and overthrow) our "tyranny."

Charlie

(What do you think, by the way?)

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