But that doesn't take away anything from the sheer audacity of the act, and the more I learn of it the more awestruck I am. These guys were a bunch of provincials who were defying the greatest empire of the day, stating their principles openly and backing them up with their lives. There's something breathtaking in that. Smirking nonentities such as Howard Zinn insist that it was all about class interest, which is precisely wrong. Were it true, nothing like the War of Independence would ever have happened - these guys were on top, successful, educated, had it all going for them if only they had decided to play ball with the Crown. They didn't do that, and nothing the cleverest Marxian reformulations can do will change it. The phrase is too loosely used, I think, but this, in every real sense, was a paradigm shift, and nothing after it could ever be quite the same as that which came before.
Whew, okay, good! I had reread your post and was like, wait a second, I think BTD has done the old disembowlment through faint agreement bit here. Glad I read you right the first time.