>The historian Christopher Hill's The World Turned Upside Down, presents an
>excellent account of the Diggers, Levellers and other groups that arose
>during the English Revolution / Civil War of the 1640s. These in their
>reclaiming of common land and so on, present an an interesting antecedent to
>contemporary communities. Their activities were reacted to quite harshly.
>Have societies become more tolerant of alternative societies do people
>think?
I suspect that the societies of north america and europe have decided
over time that alternative communities do not pose a major threat to
the powers that be. The powers in the turbulent society of the
english civil war did not have the same confidence in their ability
to resist threats to their money and influence so a violent response
was the only way they could handle it.
kathryn
