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JakeH's avatar

Well said. I find Blinken's Tweet innocuous to the point of banal. The American and French Revolutions were both manifestations of the spirit of the age, which saw political revolution not only in those two places, but in Latin America and Haiti as well, all of which were self-consciously guided by groundbreaking declarations of human rights, the great expressions of the Enlightenment era political awakening that continue to inspire, or ought to.

That age of revolution constitutes the modern invention of human rights, and that's its enduring legacy, despite the various ways revolutions of the time turned sour or failed to live up to their liberal promise. They struck a decisive blow against absolute monarchy and caste privilege, establishing liberal principles as a new normal over the long term. When Napoleon said that he was the Revolution, it was not mere self-serving grandiosity. Even as he shred democracy, he did accept the revolutionary ideals of civil equality, fair opportunity, and meritocracy.

There's a reason French patriotism to this day harkens back to the Revolution, despite the dizzying intervening regime changes. Neither France, nor Europe, nor the world was the same after the French Revolution, and France would never go all the way back. Like the American Revolution, it represented a durable assertion of (1) a national identity and character (2) grounded in universal principles of liberty and equality.

The author's point about slavery is instructive. She might have also noted that France abolished slavery in its colonies at the height of the terror (only for it to be reinstated under Napoleon). My point isn't to excuse the terror because the terrorists -- Robespierre himself -- did the right thing on slavery, any more than it is to excuse American slavery because America avoided a French-style terror, but merely to suggest that those who would condemn the French Revolution on its not insignificant specific failings sound a bit like those who argue, 1619-ishly, that America's founding is likewise little more than a massive crime scene. Both sorts of critics, I suggest, miss the forest for the trees.

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Unset's avatar

I'm not sure if the writers write the headline in Persuasion, but I really hope Young is not offering two cheers for the horror show that was the French Revolution.

The fact that the preliminary stages were more moderate, or that their task was more difficult than that of their American counterparts, hardly excuses the bloodbath that followed.

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