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QotD: On the Execution of Anacharsis Cloots
Excluded at the insistence of Maximilien Robespierre from the Jacobin Club, he remained a foreigner in many eyes. When the Committee of Public Safety levelled accusations of treason against the Hébertists, they also implicated Cloots to give substance to their charge of a foreign plot. Although his innocence was manifest, he was condemned and subsequently guillotined on 24 March 1794. He incongruously followed Vincent, Ronsin, Momoro and the rest of the Hébertist leadership to the scaffold, in front of the largest crowd ever assembled for a public execution.—Wikipedia entry on Anacharsis Cloots (Emphasis mine.)
Cloots, by the way, was born as Jean-Baptiste du Val-de-Grâce, baron de Cloots. That’s right: Baron. An aristocrat cheering on the end of the aristocracy got himself shortened by a head. Ah, the French Revolution! Such a time to be alive. Puts a frisson in one’s blood, never knowing when that blood may be spilled. Sort of like the CHAZ or CHOP Zone today. Being one of the cheerleaders didn’t save Cloots, and it isn’t saving anyone today. It is easy to read about then and be appalled or even to have a bit of schadenfreude for those who went into the Revolution with full-throated cheers and came out through Madame Guillotine. It is not so funny as we watch the mobs in action in America today.
Happy birthday, Jean-Baptiste!
Seen any other parallels lately, Ricochet?
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This is the Quote of the Day. It can be the easiest way to start a conversation on Ricochet, especially if you’re as lazy as I am. (I make J. E. Bush look like a whirling Dervish of energy, I do.) Even if you aren’t lazy, if you have a quotation you would like to share, have I ever got a sign-up sheet for you. Go pick a date. It will be all yours.
You can’t lope around the countryside with a name like “Anacharsis” and not eventually get into trouble.
What was the problem with sticking with “Jean-Baptiste?” Too common?
Apparently. That and thinking he was philosophical or something.
To say nothing of “Cloots”. That’s a name that suggests its owner had too much lunch money if ever I heard one.
What was the problem with sticking with “Jean-Baptiste?” Too common?
It was an early case of the need to virtue signal.
I believe it was sometimes spelled Klootz, just not in France.
They always think they’re going to end up in the Inner Circle, living a life of luxury. They never think they could be next.
Efforts afoot to do something about local law enforcement at the federal level illustrate how advanced the insanity is.
I’m not sure if that makes it better or not.
Indeed.
They’ll be calling for the guillotine next.
Yeah, I was thinking about that. Anacharsis’ deal was to show up in Athens and start asking impertinent questions. Sort of a risky thing to do in the middle of someone else’s revolution.
What I actually see in these cities, that have been rampaged in the name of police brutality, is that they have been experiencing severe political mismanagement by elected officials for decades and that is the cause of the disenchantment among the residents that has been directed towards their local law enforcement because there they have visible acts about which to grieve. The misbehaviors of police officers themselves are not numerous and most are not fatal encounters but the other actions of the political actors such as ‘no bail’ releases, releasing convicted felons on reduced charges, and refusing to even arrest and process alleged criminals is what makes living in these cities a dangerous venture in itself. The cities need a new approach in their management but it does not require defunding the police.
Preach it, brother!
Some actual comments from Reddit:
“Every Conservative alive is a godda**ed traitor deserving of execution in the public square.”
…………………..
“I think it’s past time to start slitting throats and nailing these motherf**ers to the wall. Figuratively speaking.”
……………..
“I mean we live in a world where a non-insignificant portion of the population thinks punching neo-Nazis is wrong, …”
It seems like social media is revealing lots of despicable beliefs, but worse than that, it’s encouraging them.
Too true. Just wait until the public executions are recorded on smart phones and broadcast on the Youtube machine.
They’re in the process of de-humanizing us, demonizing us so that anything they do to us will be not only okay but laudable. I mean if your enemy is the actual Hitler, what wouldn’t be considered okay to do to take him out.
Another comment from Reddit:
My fifteen minutes of fame? Oh, goody!
In the Classicist podcast I listened to today, VDH pointed out that in a revolution there’s always a Robespierre, and he always goes to the guillotine.
I keep waiting for someone to espouse these sentiments in meat world, where I can hear them and engage them in a lively and dynamic dialogue of the issues.
<Sigh>
Sadly, that hasn’t happened.
Likely because they can discern your idea of “lively and dynamic”:
It probably trends toward “kinetic.”
I am more than sure you are correct, sir.
“Meat world” haha
Not to get too far astray, but this reminded me of a really weird short science fiction story I read in OMNI Magazine many years ago.
“They’re Made out of Meat.”
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/TheyMade.shtml
Yeah, this little old housewife from flyover country is more likely to hear that stuff in person than you are, Boss. You’ll be the last to get an earful.
I remember it well.
When the movie comes out, the sound track will be The Who’s Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy.
Or from Stranger in a Strange Land: All I see is spoiled meat.