The French Revolution

This is a topic post, based on what sounded like a condemnation of the French Revolution in the Civil War post.

Those guillotined also included Christians in general and Catholics in particular. Priests and religious were executed just for the fact that they were Catholic. During the Reign of Terror, the streets literally ran with blood, as the executions were non-stop throughout the daylight hours. The atheist movement within the Revolution was successful in even wiping out vestiges of Chrisitanity in the calendar, by redoing it with 10-day weeks (so that Sunday could not be kept), different month names, and different day names.

The book “To Quell the Terror: The Mystery of the Vocation of the Sixteen Carmelites of Compiegne Guillotined July 17, 1794” by William Bush is a vivid illustration of just exactly what went on during the Reign of Terror. Unlike some accounts of the French Revolution which have portrayed it as some kind of noble endeavor, this book utilizes eye-witness accounts and historical facts to show the violent destruction - which was horrific.

“Dialogues des Carmélites,” a French opera by Francis Poulenc is another recounting of the story of the Martyrs of Compiegne.

Obama’s insistance on the destruction of babies in the womb makes him today’s version of Robespierre, and the pro-abortion Democrats are the Committee of Public Safety. Nancy Pelosi’s comment that the economy would be helped by preventing babies from being born is in the same mindset as Robespierre’s statement that “Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is therefore an emanation of virtue; it is not so much a special principle as it is a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to our country’s most urgent needs.” 5 Feb. 1794

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Anybody want an education about the French Revolution? Accurate? I don’t know but probably as accurate as any other version.

Several years back, I decided that I wanted to read “Les Misérables” by Victor Hugo, in the unabridged version. I had to get it from the local university library and it came in 3 thick volumes. I read it in it’s entirety and it contains more than any normal person could possibly want to know about the French Revolution.

Yes, I know that “Les Misérables” is a work of fiction.

-- Wrong rebellion, but nice effort.

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DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE AMERICAN AND FRENCH REVOLUTION:
* The French revolution was against a monarchy at home. The American Revolution was against an imperial monarchy abroad.

* Americans were used to governing themselves so the transition to independence was relatively easier. We got George Washington. The French eventually got Napoleon.

* The French had enormous concentration of wealth, the ruling class lived in enormous luxury while people were starving in the streets. The American colonies had a much better distribution of wealth because of general support for free enterprise and besides being more politically democratic were also more economically democratic. The French Revolution had a lot more to do with class - it was the poor rising up against the rich.

* The French Revolution turned into a bloodbath and months of unrelenting terror due to spasms of reprisal killings. This eventually resulted in the rise of a military dictator.

the American Revolution resulted in a constitution that is still being used today.

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I sometimes look at Obama and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and Eric Holder, and think of Robespierre.

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The French were seeking equality, the Americans were seeking liberty. The French were seeking to eliminate the distinctions of nobility, wealth, and rank, the Americans were seeking to be left alone. The Terror wasn't an unfortunate accident, it was inevitable, given the premises on which the French Revolution was based.

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‘Thou shalt not covet’ and ‘Thou shalt not steal’

are inherently violated by socialism.
I find it unfathomable that people can claim that socialism is Christian.

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I wonder if the French TODAY ever seriously consider the premise by which they celebrate their “Independence Day” ( for want of a better word ) is based on.

I believe if they took a long hard look, it isn’t something to be proud of.

Not even Frenchman Alexis D’ Tocqueville was happy with the way France turned out after Bastille Day.

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"... The French Revolution was a revolt of new money against the old nobility ... a stalled upper middle class against an entrenched upper class.''

Bravo and amen! The truth, at last. Indeed, the French peasantry (the real ones, who lived in the countryside and worked the land) were generally loyal to the throne.

And yes, every unwholesome revolution -- from France to Russia to pathetic post-colonial Africa -- ends up eating its own. Some sooner than others...

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I can’t believe that an entire nation still celebrates this murderous crap [Bastille Day] —especially after they had Napoleon and restored the Bourbon monarchy.

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America was founded in a war for independence, not a social revolution. We weren’t throwing off our domestic political leaders; they were fighting alongside their fellow Americans. The revolution was the replacement of a distant monarchy with the republican form of government that the colonists had largely already created.

The Arab revolutionary wave has more in common with the Russian and French revolutions. It’s a war against their own social and political elites. The arabs don’t have any established form of self government or any tradition of electing one. Throw in Islam and you have a real witches brew.