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It is a cautionary tale in the US. In France, it is still considered a heroic example of the people overcoming abusive power ... It is remembering that power that makes them stop up the whole country when they protest (and get what they want).
RedFunfzhen
Perhaps it might be best for the French to reflect upon how easy it is to whip a discontented public into a murderous, illogical rage, conditioning them to think they have fought for and earned some type of independence from tyranny. About how easy it is to control and infuse the 'wants' and actions of 'the people' ...
1) Far from being a spontaneous popular revolt, the French Revolution was a carefully planned coup, orchestrated at lenght by the men who would later be known as the Jacobin Club. It could accurately be defined as a conspiracy.
French republicanism was a violently nationalistic affair right from the start, with thinly-veiled goals of hegemony and conquest.
I can't see how drought, flood and disease among the crops and livestock of the country was planned by the 'masons'. This is not what I was looking for here the never ending blame of masons for all the worlds ills.
it is held in collective memory as a reminder that the people have huge power at their disposal when needed. The chaotic savagery of unfurling such power is just considered the price to pay.
RedFunfzhen
Perhaps it might be best for the French to reflect upon how easy it is to whip a discontented public into a murderous, illogical rage, conditioning them to think they have fought for and earned some type of independence from tyranny. About how easy it is to control and infuse the 'wants' and actions of 'the people' ....
Krazysh0t
Great thread that just reinstates my desire for the mods to create a history forum. Things like the French Revolution, what caused the downfall of the (western) Roman Empire, who was behind the scenes of many of the wars since the Crusades, how the Civil War really went down, and just about any major event(s) that has happened within the last 1500 years or so.
beezzer
reply to post by Cathcart
Brilliant thread!
Do you see parallels with todays issues?
Just askin'
elevenaugust
RedFunfzhen
Perhaps it might be best for the French to reflect upon how easy it is to whip a discontented public into a murderous, illogical rage, conditioning them to think they have fought for and earned some type of independence from tyranny. About how easy it is to control and infuse the 'wants' and actions of 'the people' ...
A little part of the French "elite" could think so, but frankly, most of the people here really don't care at all.
Bluesma
The moral that people should avoid banding together because it is bad to be part of a collective force.. who does that serve, exactly?edit on 4-2-2014 by Bluesma because: (no reason given)
The French Revolution led to much of Europe going to war in the mid-1790s. Some belligerents wanted to put Louis XVI back on a throne, many had other agendas like gaining territory or, in the case of some in France, creating a French Republic. A coalition of European powers formed to fight France, but this ‘First Coalition’ was just one of seven which would be needed to bring peace to the majority of Europe. The early phase of that mammoth conflict, the war of the First Coalition, is also known as the French Revolutionary Wars, and they are often overlooked by the arrival of a certain Napoleon Bonaparte, who transformed them into his conflict.