What can we continue to learn from the disastrous French Revolution about what is going to happen to our Global Village over the next decade or so?
To that end, I am making use of a useful phrase, the Woke Terror. I am using the word terror very specifically, to reflect a period of the French Revolution known as La Terreur.
According to Wikipedia (the French language version, translated to English)…
Terror is the chrononym commonly used to designate a period of the French Revolution extending between 1793 and 1794. It is characterized by the establishment of a revolutionary government centered on the Public Safety Committee and the General Security Committee.
Sound familiar? A Public Safety Committee? A Security Committee?
Of course, back in 1793–1794 cancel culture was not as subtle as the “nuanced” version used today by our contemporary “committees.” Back then, they simply grabbed the people they wanted to “cancel,” and after a speedy “trial” (they eventually didn’t even bother with “trials”) they decapitated the “threat to public safety” in the public square with a guillotine to the sound of a drum roll, with the severed head held high to make their political point.
These days, in the USA, they don’t usually kill the threat to public safety. (Ashli Babbitt is a rare, but memorable exception. Her killer still roams free.) Instead, they decapitate them from their social capital, their good reputation.
We could look at critics of the “COVID vaccination,” or critics of top and bottom surgery on 14-year-olds, or other violators of the Woke Canon, but let’s get to biggest candidate for cancellation of them all, one Donald John Trump, once, yes, an actual President of the USA. He’s not dead; far from it. All the nuances of cancel culture have failed. This doesn’t mean that they won’t find a contemporary version of John Wilkes Booth and finish the job before the November election, but I won’t speculate on this, because there’s something even more important to address right now.
Just as the Terreur of the French Revolution came to an end, I believe that today’s Woke version of terror will also come to an end, and we need to think about what will happen when the end does come.
One last look at the French Revolution for today, however: the story of how Maximilian Robespierre met his end on July 28, 1794. A brilliant lawyer elected to represent the Third Estate, “Those Who Work,” meaning neither a clergyman nor an aristocrat, Robespierre became the major, and most successful opponent to the Marquis de Lafayette, a French aristocrat who became a US hero in the American Revolution. Lafayette wanted and fought for a constitutional monarchy following the British example, whereas Robespierre’s “off with their heads” model of political activism successfully brought about the decapitation of king Louis XVI, his wife Marie Antoinette, and ultimately Robespierre himself. Before he was thrust under then blade, his jaw had been smashed under “mysterious circumstances,” making it hard for him to give a speech on the scaffold.
Robespierre, preceded by some of his political allies, became a prototype of the familiar “Leftist” hero who gets thrown under the bus by the latest gang of “farther Left Leftists,” a notable example being Leon Trotsky, assassinated in Mexico with an ice axe after Stalin decided that he had to go.
Anyhow, just as the French Terreur came to an end, it seems that the contemporary Global Village version will also be reined in, to be replaced by… what?
Since I like to make lists, I will now make a “What will happen to?” List:
What Will Happen to:
Donald Trump?
The American “Left”?
Christianity?
Judaism?
Islam?
Russia?
The US Constitution?
Totalitarianism?
I plan to address each item on the list, but not all of them now, and not in that order.
I might as well start with Totalitarianism. It’s not just old-fashioned tyranny or thuggery under the command of a warlord. It means, at least in theory, total control of everyone by a State of some kind.
My educated guess is that that Totalitarianism will advance in some places, as it has done in the “People’s Republic” of China, because the technology that makes it possible will advance. I can fantasize a State under the power of which every subject human will have to hold his palm up to a device which will approve or disapprove him, a technology that Amazon is introducing now to pay for groceries, and if the AI decides thumbs down 👎🏻 , the outcome will be a high-tech version of “off with his head.”
On the other hand, technology always cuts both ways. Fire, a very ancient human technology, can burn your house down or cook your soup. You are reading this because the technology making it possible for you to read this was developed to 1) make a lot of money and 2) brainwash you, not necessarily in that order. Summarized, Totalitarianism is not about to go away. That, of course, leads to the question about the US Constitution. Is that gone for good?
Certainly not. Bear in mind that the US Constitution is based on a series of historical precedents which come from many parts of the world, one of which is natural law. I won’t elaborate, but I will leave you a link.
Currently the US Constitution is under severe threat by crooked lawyers. I needn’t name names, since example are quite easy to find. Hint: do an Internet search for Lawfare against Donald Trump.
And, before this Substack piece becomes too long and wordy, let’s skip to another item on my list: Donald Trump. What is going to happen to him?
Let’s fantasize that the Lincoln-JFK-RFK Option (⚰️) is deployed before the upcoming November election. How would that play out? Fort Sumter?
Or as Tom Jefferson put it,
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure. (Source.)
After the Woke Terror puts its foul-smelling tail between its legs and beats a retreat, is the blood of patriots and tyrants going to flow freely? Or as the aforementioned Donald Trump might have phrased it, is there going to be a bloodbath?
Could be. Or, with luck, maybe not in the USA. There’s already bloodbaths going on elsewhere; I need not remind you.
But, referring back to Mr. Jefferson, I think that I can safely predict that, natural or unnatural, there is certainly going to be a lot of manure.
Very interesting article. Lots to think about. Thank you. I also wonder about the Great Terror and how that transpired. People seeking freedom became a deadly mob so quickly with awful results. I think our current situation is somewhat different. In our case the people seeking freedom are infiltrated, surveilled and instigated— then raided, jailed, and charged without due process. Fake crimes charged. We need to study France’s revolution more, but keep in mind that the motives of the people who want to destroy the US are not the same as the royalty in the court. It’s not just power. There’s more going on. I just can’t get a handle on it.
Well done Jonathan. Like Secret S stated below; ‘more going on, just difficult to fully comprehend’.
scott