Great exposition of the pattern set by the reign of terror and how it informed the upheavals that followed in the 20th century. Like many NZers of my generation (b1947) my knowledge of the French revolution is relatively superficial and stops at what happened in and around Paris and the call to arms of liberty, equality and brotherhood - I can even still sing the Marseillaise we had to learn in 4th form French. I had no idea of what happened in other parts of France.
It's like a bucket of cold water to be reminded of the many forms of tyranny that result from blind adherence to a set of principles that seemed to promise much but when driven by blind ideological fervour that the state is the ultimate arbiter of public morality etc disaster is not far down the track. After all, we're seeing the beginnings of this here, with the takeover of our public service, academic and educational institutions and legal system by those whose catch-cry of diversity, equality and inclusion has weird echos of liberty, equality and fraternity. This social justice agenda is being pursued with as much fervour as any Parisian mob storming the bastille.
Perhaps it's not surprising that some of the main architects of Critical Theory were French!
Great exposition of the pattern set by the reign of terror and how it informed the upheavals that followed in the 20th century. Like many NZers of my generation (b1947) my knowledge of the French revolution is relatively superficial and stops at what happened in and around Paris and the call to arms of liberty, equality and brotherhood - I can even still sing the Marseillaise we had to learn in 4th form French. I had no idea of what happened in other parts of France.
It's like a bucket of cold water to be reminded of the many forms of tyranny that result from blind adherence to a set of principles that seemed to promise much but when driven by blind ideological fervour that the state is the ultimate arbiter of public morality etc disaster is not far down the track. After all, we're seeing the beginnings of this here, with the takeover of our public service, academic and educational institutions and legal system by those whose catch-cry of diversity, equality and inclusion has weird echos of liberty, equality and fraternity. This social justice agenda is being pursued with as much fervour as any Parisian mob storming the bastille.
Perhaps it's not surprising that some of the main architects of Critical Theory were French!