"Virtue, without which terror is fatal"

[mdegges]

"Political Philosophy of Terror"

Speech given by Maximilien Robespierre during the French Revolution

 

[...] If the mainspring of popular government in peacetime is virtue, amid

revolution it is at the same time [both] virtue and terror: virtue, without

which terror is fatal; terror, without which virtue is impotent. Terror is

nothing but prompt, severe, inflexible justice; it is therefore an emanation of

virtue. It is less a special principle than a consequence of the general

principle of democracy applied to our country's most pressing needs.

It has been said that terror was the mainspring of despotic government. Does

your government, then, resemble a despotism? Yes, as the sword which glitters in

the hands of liberty's heroes resembles the one with which tyranny's lackeys are

armed. Let the despot govern his brutalized subjects by terror; he is right to

do this, as a despot. Subdue liberty's enemies by terror, and you will be right,

as founders of the Republic. The government of the revolution is the despotism

of liberty against tyranny. Is force made only to protect crime? And is it not

to strike the heads of the proud that lightning is destined? . . .

To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to pardon them is

barbarity. The rigor of tyrants has only rigor for a principle; the rigor of the

republican government comes from charity.

Therefore, woe to those who would dare to turn against the people the terror

which ought to be felt only by its enemies! Woe to those who, confusing the

inevitable errors of civic conduct with the calculated errors of perfidy, or

with conspirators' criminal attempts, leave the dangerous schemer to pursue the

peaceful citizen! Perish the scoundrel who ventures to abuse the sacred name of

liberty, or the redoubtable arms which liberty has entrusted to him, in order to

bring mourning or death into patriots' hearts! This abuse has existed, one

cannot doubt it. It has been exaggerated, no doubt, by the aristocracy. But if

in all the Republic there existed only one virtuous man persecuted by the

enemies of liberty, the government's duty would be to seek him out vigorously

and give him a dazzling revenge. [...]

 

 

Is Robespierre's famous quote true? "If the mainspring of popular government in peacetime is virtue, amid

revolution it is at the same time [both] virtue and terror: virtue, without which terror is fatal; terror, without which virtue is impotent."

 

And do you think his definition of political terror, explained in the excerpt, matches up with Rand's definition and thoughts about justice?

[Hairnet]

   The context of his quote is the reign of terror right? 

 

    I don't think that suspending due process to weed out political dissidents is a good idea. His government discredited itself by what it did. You have either won the revolution and you have an orderly government, or you haven't won the revolution. You can't have both states at the same time. 

   

    Nationalist rebellions such as this are usually filled with paranoia and the sense of a never ending revolution. Russia, China, Vietnam, all experienced the same sort of things during their revolutions because their leaders justified their actions on the basis that foreign colonialists were going to destroy their country. With the french it was Rousseau, with the rest it was Lenin. 

[ruveyn1]

Is Robespierre's famous quote true? "If the mainspring of popular government in peacetime is virtue, amid

revolution it is at the same time [both] virtue and terror: virtue, without which terror is fatal; terror, without which virtue is impotent."

 

And do you think his definition of political terror, explained in the excerpt, matches up with Rand's definition and thoughts about justice?

Nothing like Rand.  Robespeirre was a nasty piece of work.  He managed to divorce virtue from any comprehensible notion of goodness and righteousness.  Talk about the stolen concept!

 

ruveyn1