ARTWORK: Maddy Brown 23.
The Biggest Threat By Mai Greenall
In political science, the quickest way to create change is, by definition, a revolution. The details surrounding how political revolutions in our history have unfolded are largely glossed over. It’s often easier to view revolutions as suddenly occurring events perpetrated by a few radicals who were able to sway the populous into taking arms against a governing faction with a charismatic call to action and a promise of emancipation. History demonstrates a different reality. A perpetual cycle of perceived democracy crumbling into tyranny. A revolving door of actors performing the same play. The American War of Independence provides a great example. It was a war waged in reaction
to the imposition of British control and a King who made decisions based on his whims and personal gain. During the birth of the new nation, documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were purportedly created based on the principle that, as Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, “… All men are created equal, and they are endowed… with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and happiness”. The irony of this? The intentions of the Founding Fathers guaranteed that the United States of America would never be a true democracy. Thomas Jefferson, along with many other founding fathers, owned and abused slaves.
