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Originally Posted by Bodhisattva  "Complaining" about being oppressed and actually "Being" oppressed are drasitically different.
IMO the Texans were not being oppressed in the slightest just as the Illegals in CA and such are not either. |
For Texans: Forcing them to free thier slaves is one form of oppression, as the popular opinion at the time was thier god-given right to own slaves. Another form of oppression is the amount of taxation that hinders the development of a man's earnings. In other words, economic/trade manipulations that prevent individuals from acting "freely," as in selling thier product how they wish.
For immigrants today: Not being able to drive a car is a drastic hindrance to making a living. One would argue that it should be a right, rather than just a priveledge, simply because of it's a near necessity for life in the modern world. Especially in the a developed nation such as the US. Another form of oppression is that employers can threaten immigrants by deporting them if they complain, which is a manipulation of the system to exploit immigrants.
The above examples are not complaints of being oppressed, these are examples of being oppressed.
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Seeking a better life and not finding it is very different from what the Texans and what the Illegal Mexican Immigrants are finding. Practically all, in both cases, found likfe better for various reasons and both complain about not having it even better than they do... much like the American Revloutionaries are their ire over imagined or made up ideas about "No Taxation wtihout Representation"
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In the case of the Texans, they took advantage that the Mexican gov't was practically giving away free land. But even when the Mexican gov't closed the offer and even closed thier borders by building outposts to gaurd against any more immigrants, Americans still illegally crossed the borders.
It wasn't that they didn't found what they want because they did, which was the free land. The problem is that Mexico couldn't control the illegal immigration problem, and because of this, Americans squatted on the land until they had a large enough population to claim independance.
In both cases, these illegal immigrants filled a need. Mexico wanted to use up the empty land in the north, when the Americans didn't do what the Mexican gov't expected them to do, they tightened control, which lead to rebellion. Illegal Immigrants in the US today, they're also filling a need. Which is to provide cheap labor to make American products/services competitive in the global market. Will we see rebellion from these illegal immigrants? I don't know. Maybe. Who knows?
But in both cases, the illegal immigrants are being exploited. So should a foreign gov't step in and free these exploited people? Is it justifiable?
What we are experiencing here in the US, with our own problem of illegal immigration is very similar to the Texan situation. The only difference is that Mexico can't beat the US military. A call for independance will fail. But would a call for independance be justifiable? The same justification that Texas had?
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As to the rest, it is subtle differences such as this that I will not engage in with KTR.
He likes his assumptions and he can have them.  |
I'm not trying to stick up for Korimyr, I just thought he made a very good parallel.