One of Jupp's best yet. This is a must read for anyone remotely interested in politics. The brief but very important history here, reveals the truism, history repeats itself. And as for the French.... they have much to answer for.
Insightful analysis and wonderfully written. Undoubtedly as per the Clausewitz formulation, violence is politics by other means. Reason is a weak master and must be enforced by either mild violence ( shunning, cancel culture,legal fines, imprisonment) or more accelerated aggression. Reason can be subjective and individual, violence is objective and universal. The thin shell of a society must be maintained by constant and continuous low level aggression/punishment of transgressions, or it will devolve into civil war.
Thank you. Yes, that punishment of transgression is as vital as a State monopoly of large scale violence must be for a society to avoid anarchy. Classical liberal centrists have done things that end the peace through strength of an ordered civilisation. They created moral relativism. They created the importation of barbarian cultures and groups. And they pretended that you could radically change society without consequence and that the Centre plays and played no part in political violence and extremism returning to or overtaking a society. They have seen themselves only as the people above the battle when really they are the people who set the conditions that create the battle.
Please expand your thoughts on this era and how it relates to ours.
I hope I never meet you. It’s not that I don’t want to speak with you for hours, but I’d feel guilty for keeping you away from your writing.
I’m reading volume 11 of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization, The Age of Napoleon. My current thoughts on the French enlightenment are this era gave birth to nihilism. Reason became a cult which to be a member in good standing required one to reject all traditions, both good and bad and as time passed it became especially the good. This led to the inevitable moral inversion of good and evil: the good is evil and the evil is good. This is where we are today. Since evil is good nihilism is their final solution.
The revolutionaries are serial killers who always save a bullet for themselves. Perhaps they can be convinced to achieve martyrdom through self immolation?
Thanks Richard. Durant is extremely interesting and thought provoking. I haven’t decided yet how much of his thinking I agree with though, as I only skimmed it really and don’t think I did a deep enough reading (I’d have to go back and read The Story of Civilisation properly). I tend to agree with your point on nihilism, but I think moral relativism combined with an over intellectualised hubris of understanding that thought itself in a scientific position of objective analysis when it was really as tied to bias and prejudice as anyone else explains much of the terrible impact of French thought. And centrists and classical liberals are very prone to that specific kind of hubris. We replaced Man is made in the image of the Creator with Man has no Creator save himself, save the pure operation of his Self and Reason….which is never so impure as when it imagines itself unbound by God or Nature. There’s a line from I think therefore I am to I am whatever I think I am, from assumed Reason to the most Absurd delusion.
This is the line our history has charted, thanks to the French Revolution.
Durant’s achievement isn’t his thinking but in giving voice to the ghosts of the past which he does in 9,955 pages and the hundreds of thousands of pages he compels his reader to discover.
Brilliant! I have been exploring again the intricacies of the French Revolution. A youthful gaze did not see what it would mean to our modern society. I didn't fully understand the deliberate destruction of - well nearly everything.
I have been following the Tom Holland and Daniel Sandbrook Podcast called The Rest is History and the detailed analysis of the French Revolution is riveting.
Fascinating! I’ve recently become more acquainted with the French Revolution and your article adds another interesting insight into how it still affects Europe and the world today. Thank you for your work.
David: You have outdone yourself. Beautiful analysis beautifully written. When I read this I thought Yep, Jupp nails it again…BUT, in my old age, I ask where am I left in all this history? What am I to do? Is there anything left for me to do? Getting murdered in my bathtub is unlikely, even though I have never shied away from pissing off the great and powerful, and murdering someone else in their bathtub is pretty much out because it’s impossible to decide where to start. Old men still in their right minds are on the hook, but, as Doc Holiday said in “Wyatt Earp,” “There is no hook, Wyatt, there is only what we do.”
Thank you very much. As an aside you’ve jus5 made me think of, it’s a very odd connection that both Marat and Churchill worked from their baths. You couldn’t get two more diametrically opposed characters.
One of Jupp's best yet. This is a must read for anyone remotely interested in politics. The brief but very important history here, reveals the truism, history repeats itself. And as for the French.... they have much to answer for.
Thanks John. 😀😀
Insightful analysis and wonderfully written. Undoubtedly as per the Clausewitz formulation, violence is politics by other means. Reason is a weak master and must be enforced by either mild violence ( shunning, cancel culture,legal fines, imprisonment) or more accelerated aggression. Reason can be subjective and individual, violence is objective and universal. The thin shell of a society must be maintained by constant and continuous low level aggression/punishment of transgressions, or it will devolve into civil war.
Thank you. Yes, that punishment of transgression is as vital as a State monopoly of large scale violence must be for a society to avoid anarchy. Classical liberal centrists have done things that end the peace through strength of an ordered civilisation. They created moral relativism. They created the importation of barbarian cultures and groups. And they pretended that you could radically change society without consequence and that the Centre plays and played no part in political violence and extremism returning to or overtaking a society. They have seen themselves only as the people above the battle when really they are the people who set the conditions that create the battle.
Brilliant! You made me look at something in a new way, thank you.
Thanks Bettina. 😀😀
Please expand your thoughts on this era and how it relates to ours.
I hope I never meet you. It’s not that I don’t want to speak with you for hours, but I’d feel guilty for keeping you away from your writing.
I’m reading volume 11 of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization, The Age of Napoleon. My current thoughts on the French enlightenment are this era gave birth to nihilism. Reason became a cult which to be a member in good standing required one to reject all traditions, both good and bad and as time passed it became especially the good. This led to the inevitable moral inversion of good and evil: the good is evil and the evil is good. This is where we are today. Since evil is good nihilism is their final solution.
The revolutionaries are serial killers who always save a bullet for themselves. Perhaps they can be convinced to achieve martyrdom through self immolation?
Or perhaps, as you said, I’m also trapped in the definitions of this era?
Thanks Richard. Durant is extremely interesting and thought provoking. I haven’t decided yet how much of his thinking I agree with though, as I only skimmed it really and don’t think I did a deep enough reading (I’d have to go back and read The Story of Civilisation properly). I tend to agree with your point on nihilism, but I think moral relativism combined with an over intellectualised hubris of understanding that thought itself in a scientific position of objective analysis when it was really as tied to bias and prejudice as anyone else explains much of the terrible impact of French thought. And centrists and classical liberals are very prone to that specific kind of hubris. We replaced Man is made in the image of the Creator with Man has no Creator save himself, save the pure operation of his Self and Reason….which is never so impure as when it imagines itself unbound by God or Nature. There’s a line from I think therefore I am to I am whatever I think I am, from assumed Reason to the most Absurd delusion.
This is the line our history has charted, thanks to the French Revolution.
Durant’s achievement isn’t his thinking but in giving voice to the ghosts of the past which he does in 9,955 pages and the hundreds of thousands of pages he compels his reader to discover.
Beautifully written.
You have given me much to think about ... and thank you for the History.
Thanks Patricia 😀😀
Brilliant! I have been exploring again the intricacies of the French Revolution. A youthful gaze did not see what it would mean to our modern society. I didn't fully understand the deliberate destruction of - well nearly everything.
I have been following the Tom Holland and Daniel Sandbrook Podcast called The Rest is History and the detailed analysis of the French Revolution is riveting.
Anyway well done and keep it up.
Thanks very much. It’s so important and it’s influence is particularly underestimated in the UK. Holland seems like a decent historian.
Fascinating! I’ve recently become more acquainted with the French Revolution and your article adds another interesting insight into how it still affects Europe and the world today. Thank you for your work.
Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it and appreciate the share. 😀😀
A very astute comparison to today, suggesting scale may change but mankind basically doesn't.
Thanks Alexei. 😀😀
David: You have outdone yourself. Beautiful analysis beautifully written. When I read this I thought Yep, Jupp nails it again…BUT, in my old age, I ask where am I left in all this history? What am I to do? Is there anything left for me to do? Getting murdered in my bathtub is unlikely, even though I have never shied away from pissing off the great and powerful, and murdering someone else in their bathtub is pretty much out because it’s impossible to decide where to start. Old men still in their right minds are on the hook, but, as Doc Holiday said in “Wyatt Earp,” “There is no hook, Wyatt, there is only what we do.”
Thank you very much. As an aside you’ve jus5 made me think of, it’s a very odd connection that both Marat and Churchill worked from their baths. You couldn’t get two more diametrically opposed characters.