From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Wed Dec 20 2000 - 10:03:00 MST
On Wednesday, December 20, 2000 2:59 AM KPJ kpj@sics.se wrote:
> What about the last time some states tried to leave the federation?
> South vs North, and all that. They did not succeed, AFAIK.
> Feel free to elaborate on why secessionists would have more luck today.
My two cents:
Secession is usually a threat and works to get concessions. Surely,
hardcore secessionists want out, but most people don't, so what winds up
happening is there's a compromise. This has happened a few times in (US)
American history, the Civil War being the time an actual break happened.
Of course, when one looks past the USA, we do see lots of successful
secessionist movements, such as in Eritrea (now separate from Ethipia),
Somalialand, the breakup of the Soviet Union and its allies (e.g.,
Czechoslovakia), and the balkanizing of the Balkans. There are also lots of
very strong secessionist movements which have yet to be successful, such as
in Ingushtia (spelling?), Chechnya, the Basques in Spain, and the Northern
League in Italy. (The last seems a lot like many pre-Civil War secessionist
movements in America, more aimed at getting concessions from the Center
(using the terminology of secessionists: the national government is usually
called the Center or the Central Government) than really breaking away -- or
that's what's happening regardless.)
But history's not over yet. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?:)
What we might want to discuss is this:
1) Is secession or the threat thereof a good safety valve against
centralized power?
2) Where would it fit in Extropian or transhumanist politics?
3) Is it ultimately more Extropian? (I tend to think it is, though I can
see how some might disagree.)
Reasons Greetings!
Daniel Ust
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
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