Contrasting the Anglospheric and the French Revolutions

[jordan179]

Did the French not believe in the natural rights of man? What is it you see as the difference in their revolution that caused it to fail so spectacularly?Lack of experience with self-government. The French state, since their formation out of the barbarian Frank polity by Charles I (Clovis), had only known one of two conditions: absolute monarchy

Comments

[rhjunior]

There was a more fundamental difference.
The American Revolution, if you read the Federalist Papers, was set forth with an attitude of restoration of the system....a desire to put things in their proper order. It was a revolution led by Christian men with a Christian vision of law, order, justice, and liberty; It was based on the understanding that man was not perfect, nor perfectable, a desire for all authority to be in its rightful place and kept within its rightful limits.

The French Revolution, however, was not about restoration, but about complete obliteration--- to burn EVERYTHING, to strangle the last nobleman with the entrails of the last priest, set them on fire with kindling made from the last book, and then grow a new utopia upon the ashes. It was, like every utopian vision, about erasing everything, especially God and religion, and building a completely humanist paradise.... completely secular and utterly carnal. It was based on the belief that man was both perfect AND perfectable; that if one stripped away whatever was obstructing man from his godhood, he would ascend forthwith. And, after all the fires and blood and purgings were done, and the frenchman had STILL not ascended to divinity, then it was obviously time to purge some more.... till the guillotine claimed the very ones who brought it forth, and the whole mess groaned to a blood-crusted halt.

[affablestranger]

More so than being actually "Christian", the American Founders understood human nature, that power wielded is invariably used for the accumulation of more at the expense of those not in power. Their vision of law, order, justice, and liberty was one of protecting the common man from his government, of chaining the government into the service of the common man, and that was at the time a completely revolutionary idea, that men could govern themselves.

The Founders also knew it probably wouldn't last, given that it went against human nature. It's all in what Benjamin Franklin said when asked what government they'd brought forth at the convention. He said, "A republic, ma'am, if you can keep it."