225 years ago, September 21, 1792, the French revolutionaries
proclaimed France a “republic.” It is what is known historically
as the French “First Republic.” A monarchy over nine centuries old was simply
scrapped.
The modern man likes to think
of this as progress. It is what freed the French from the tyranny of the
monarchy; it is what gave the French their rights; and subsequently it freed
the rest of the West as well.
Erik
von Kuehnelt-Leddihn tells us otherwise:
One shouldn’t forget that
much of what may appear positive to us today – liberality, intellectuality,
humanitarianism – had all been already brought to us by the liberal, courtly
absolutism, while the French Revolution which used all these words in reality
did nothing more than brutally extinguish them.
We certainly are subject to a
conveying of history that makes us look a bit too mildly upon the French
Revolution. And that is putting it very diplomatically.
The
French Revolution has given much inspiration to later tyrannies, especially the
extreme totalitarian regimes of the 20th century,
a century Murray Rothbard once called for
the repeal of. Kuehnelt-Leddihn’s book Leftism Revisited is
helpful in elaborating exactly this inspiration.
Lew
Rockwell asks: Democracy u2013 The Go...Best
Price: $33.10Buy New $38.29(as of 06:40 EDT - Details)
Is it too much to say that
since the French Revolution, the left has been the source of virtually all
political evils, and continues to be so in our day?
Now
we’re here in 2017. We have an American president who praises the Bastille Day
celebrations of the French Revolution and its military parades. He now even
apparently wants to bring that part of the French Revolution to America, a
tradition that dates back only to after the monarchy restorations of the 19th century.
The same president also has
threatened to strike a neighbor country of the only country in the world that
has ever been stricken with nuclear weapons with total annihilation.
And we are supposed to think
that this is the best of all worlds; the best we can do?
Ah yes, it’s just the wrong
guy in the White House. If it only were that well! If only!
If you’re still convinced
modern democracy is good or you need debating ammunition to convince others
it’s not, there are quite a few sources, of which a selection is in the
following.
We
have H.L. Mencken and some collected witty material in Notes on Democracy.
Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy
in America, while not considered directly opposed to democracy, has
some great insights on the perils of democracy. Notes on DemocracyBest
Price: $19.99Buy New $295.60(as of 08:04 EDT - Details)
W.E.H.
Lecky was an Irish Member of Parliament in Westminster. He wrote Democracy and Liberty at
the end of the 19th century. He even claimed that the American Revolution was
caused by Parliament assuming too much power from the King.
Then
we have the aforementioned Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, whose main work on
promoting monarchy over democracy is Liberty
or Equality. He also tackles the issue in articles and in Leftism Revisitedand
other works.
Nicholas
Henshall challenges the standard view of absolute monarchy in The Myth of Absolutism,
in which he specifically clears up a misunderstanding of the phrase absolute monarchy,
showing us that France was not as centralized in the person of the King, nor in
Versailles or Paris, as we typically believe. Frenchman Bertrand de Jouvenel
has a similar perspective of monarchy and state power in On Power and
in Sovereignty.
The
Rise and Decline of the State by Martin van Creveld
also offers a good overview and details in how government has grown, amongst
other things, showing us that the government’s control of the money system is
connected with the depersonalization of government power.
Bionic Mosquito has
done a good job as well in bringing enlightening posts on the growth of
government power, decline of Western Civilization, and democracy from time to
time. Myth of Absolutism, TheBest
Price: $9.08Buy New $139.26(as of 08:04 EDT - Details)
But
perhaps the best statement on the transition from monarchy to democracy is from
Hans-Hermann Hoppe, author of Democracy
– The God That Failed, when he says:
From the vantage point of
elementary economic theory and in light of historical evidence, then, a
revisionist view of modern history results. The Whig theory of history,
according to which mankind marches continually forward toward ever higher
levels of progress, is incorrect. From the viewpoint of those who prefer less
exploitation over more and who value farsightedness and individual responsibility
above shortsightedness and irresponsibility, the historic transition from
monarchy to democracy represents not progress but civilizational decline.
Hoppe
is also known for saying that democracy is a soft
variant of Communism, and that democracy rarely in the history of ideas has
been seen as anything else.
The French Revolution,
roughly speaking, marked the beginning of the transition from monarchy to
democracy, a transition which, again roughly, was ended by World War I. There
are some shining starts left, notably Liechtenstein and Monaco.
But remember when Donald
Trump wants to bring Bastille Day military parades to America, the French
Revolution is nothing to be proud of.
J.K. Baltzersen [send him mail]
writes from the capital of the Oil Kingdom of Norway. He is the editor of the
book Grunnlov og frihet: turtelduer
eller erkefiender? (in Norwegian and Swedish; translated title: Constitution and Liberty:
Lovebirds or Archenemies?), with Cato Institute’s Johan Norberg
amongst the contributors. Follow him on Twitter.
Previous
article by Jørn K. Baltzersen: A Day of Betrayal
