[geeks] can't wait for Vista

[Sandwich Maker]

" From: Mike Meredith <very at zonky.org>
" 
" On Wed, 8 Nov 2006 08:19:56 -0500, Patrick Giagnocavo wrote:
" > It fails with even a hundred.  And, it was already tried in this 
" > country.
" > 
" > When the Puritans arrived in North America, they set up a system of 
" > communal land ownership and communal ownership and distribution of the
" > 
" > William Bradford, the leader, changed from this system to one
" > involving  private ownership of land and the colony flourished.
" > 
" > q.e.d.
" 
" Er ... no. One example doesn't demonstrate anything conclusive about
" communism. In a limited sense, communism worked reasonably well for
" hundreds of years in Russian villages as long as it didn't irritate the
" landowner.

it didn't work so well in 70 years of the soviet union.

" Besides aren't there other examples of colonies failing or nearly
" failing in the US which didn't start communally ? Didn't Virginia have
" early troubles ?

just saw a pbs 'secrets of the dead' about that.  there's some
evidence of sabotage in the va colony, amongst other problems - a
defensible but very unhealthy location for one.

" Most early US colonists were not well prepared for a life in an
" environment where they had to be completely self-sufficient. England's
" economy by the 16thC was sufficiently along the path of specialisation
" that many of the colonists would have been specialists ... tradesmen,
" wool farmers, etc.

the pilgrims seeking freedom of worship [tr: freedom to oppress
others] were a bunch of reformist wingnuts.  one of the reasons they
came here is that as protestants they refused to recognize the church
of england.  as the king is the head, that's technically treason,
punishable by a particularly nasty form of execution.  so they could
either have
1. died horribly and painfully
2. spent the rest of their naturals in 17th c. prison
3. converted
or
4. accepted exile
in that light, what they did wasn't so daring.  imho it's also telling
that they switched from the geneva protestant bible to the kjv less
than 2 generations after landing.  i guess they started seeing things
differently once they became the state...

and btw there were a -lot- of non protestants among those early
settlers.
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
adh at an.bradford.ma.us                       and think what none thought