Tuesday, February 12, 2019
The Diggers Questions
Through times of political chaos it’s not uncommon for radical social and political ideas to emerge. Still I wonder why people joined the Digger movement. Was it because of the philosophy about equality or was it because much of the text related to the New Testament? I also wonder why the Parliament wasn’t more open to accepting any of the diggers ideas consider a purpose of parliament is to represent the people of the country
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
For many of them, it was because they were starving and really didn't have a lot of options. Lots of the Diggers had been kicked out of their homes and had nowhere to go and were living rough trying to forage a living as they could. But others came from better and more stable environments; there were plenty of well-educated folks who hated seeing the way that the system had disenfranchised SO MANY of their fellow men and women.
ReplyDeleteI had similar thoughts as I read about the Diggers. I feel that both equality and religion merged to form a call to arms to the public. Those that answered knew that they would face hardships both with the land and their fellow man. I think this is where the Utopia aspect of this group stems from - they were organized, sustainable, and committed to progress and fulfillment by following set rules and beliefs. By the same token, their Utopia is not everyone's, and the ones who sought to destroy them were people who not only disagreed, but aggressively sought to be right themselves.
ReplyDeleteI felt like they must have had a lot of courage to do what they did, because they surely knew the consequences of breaking laws or going against the nobility in those times was usually a somewhat painful death. But, I do think what they were doing was smart, because they were truly out of options, but, unfortunately, it was just too good to be true.
ReplyDeleteI think that living under monarchy and living alongside rich people left the Diggers unable to exist in the society that they wanted. I see those parties caring less for the relationships between humans and nature or even worse a disrespect for that nature. They also came at a good time; with such a weakened political structure, the political system of England at the time gave radical parties opportunities to have their voices heard. These kinds of people always exist, but because of how structured political society often is, their voices are rarely heard in the way that the Diggers' voices were heard.
ReplyDeleteWhen a society constructs so many barriers between a man and his general wellbeing, he is forced into desperation. As opposed to thievery or violence, the pacifistic digger cause was sympathetic, morally defensible, and not punished as severely as other methods of civil disobedience would have been. Had they instead taken food from the rich, they could have been hanged as thieves.
ReplyDelete