Consider this: in most versions, Robin Hood was a nobleman. He first got on the wrong side of the law by poaching deer off the royal hunting grounds (in the version I read). He responded by adopting a radically paranoid view of the government, protesting in particular the taxes being levied to pay for the war in the Holy Land (the Crusades). He banded with likewise tax resisters, survivalists, and gangsters, all men, and camped in the woods. He supported the legitimate King Richard over the English government ruling in his absence, making Robin Hood a Tory.
If Robin Hood lived today, he's probably be considered extremely conservative, reading gun fanciers' magazines (the modern equivalent of the longbow), loudly proclaiming his right to hunt, dressing in camo, driving a van, and the sort of political action through violence he was known for would not go over very well in the kinder and gentler modern era. We'd call it fascism.
I think that's the real appeal of Robin Hood. As the saying goes, Nazis may be evil, but nobody ever roleplayed as an organizer for NOW in the bedroom.
The idea that Robin Hood promoted socialism seems to come from the saying "rob from the rich and give to the poor." That's not exactly socialism, but it is a sort of redistributionism associated with gangsters the world over. If the state isn't on your side, you need to bribe the locals to gain their favor so they won't roll over on you. The easiest way to do that is to distribute food to starving peasants, torture bosses in front of their employees, toss bags of money out, etc.
The Australian bush rangers did that. So did pirates when they raided civilian ships. So does the Japanese yakuza, putting Robin Hood in the same category as the Japanese uyoku dantai, or ultra-rightwing groups.
Read other answers by John David Ward on Quora:
- Why do socialists label themselves as their polar opposites? Why not "authoritarian" and "repressive"? Is that because the truth would set us free?
- We teach children it is right to share, so why is this ethic not followed as adults by voting for a Socialist Party?
- What is your go-to story?
from Quora http://ift.tt/1UfdB3m
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