Wednesday 10 February 2010

Why revolution is always evil and was the very first sin (1)

Non serviam - "I shall not serve", said the Enemy of humankind and so fell from grace taking with him fully one third of Heaven.

Thus did Hell begin - that loathsome place where self-love and rebellion eat at the soul for all eternity.

And this spirit of rebellion has become the watchword of revolutions ever since.

It is small wonder then, that revolutions are such bloody, hateful affairs that begin badly and end worse.

By contrast, the duty of kingship is to serve. That is why the motto of the Prince of Wales is Ich Dien - "I serve".

Likewise the duty of each of us is to serve - serve God, serve our families, serve our country and that means, also, serve our governors. They, in turn, should serve us. Indeed, the highest thing man can do is to serve others. The higher you are, the more fully must you serve others.

However, we do not have the right to judge our rulers if they do not serve well enough or according to our liking.

The reason is so simple that anyone ought to be able to understand it. If the lower can sit in judgement upon the higher then authority ceases to exist.

By what right can the the lower possibly sit in judgement upon the higher? It can only be by some higher authority yet. But if the lower claims the right to judge the higher then even that yet higher authority can be judged and discarded, too.

The result is then that there is no authority at all.

And when there is no authority at all then no-one is safe, good government ends and mere anarchy becomes the norm. And when anarchy is the norm, the strong prey upon the weak and justice is at an end.


Jewish women and children herded by Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto.
When legitimate authority is overturned by revolution then no-one is safe, good government ends and mere anarchy becomes the norm. And when anarchy is the norm, the strong prey upon the weak and justice is at an end.


Many a revolutionary claims to sit in judgement upon his rightful governor by appealing to an "higher" authority in the form of "justice" or "the people" or "historical imperative" or even some spurious form of god of his own making.

But if the rightful governor can be overthrown then so can the "higher authority" of "justice" or "the people" or "historical imperative" or "god". Once you start down the path of claiming to overthrow your own ruler then there is no end in sight, every authority is then under risk and chaos is inevitable.

And so it has proved.

Every revolution ends by devouring itself and its own.


The Revolution devours its own: the execution of Maximilien Robespierre.
The murder of King Louis XVI opened the floodgates to a massive wave of blood-letting in which huge numbers perished - most of them peasants and ordinary citizens - in the "Reign of Terror" which did not slow down until Robespierre, the author of the Terror, was himself guillotined at the order of the very revolution he created. These acts were all the more rebellious and diabolical in that the executioner - as seen here - was dressed as one of the educated and ruling classes, in culottes, who should have been most loyal but, instead, defiantly holds up the head to satisfy the leering blood-lust of the lawless, abandoned mob. But this is the nature of revolution: it poisons all loyalties, it teaches the servant to betray the master, and the master the servant, the son to betray the father and the father, the son, husband and wife to betray each other and it teaches man to hate his maker, God.



As the odious St Just, Robespierre's henchman, put it: "the Revolution consists in destroying all that opposes it".

In short - non serviam.

Revolution is a self-defeating reversal of all good human values. Even an atheist ought to be opposed to it. It is a recipe for chaos. And, when chaos reigns, the strong prey upon the weak and peace and justice are at an end.


William Frederick Yeames. "And when did you last see your father?". 1878.
Puritans claimed the right to sit in judgement on their superiors and to interrogate innocent children to discover the whereabouts of their loyalist and royalist fathers who had defended the king and rightful authority. As such, the Puritans were revolutionaries and enemies of God.


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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, the government, the rightful authority, makes a law which says that whenever you go out in public, you must do so in the nude. Do you obey this 'rightful' authority or do you, like anybody with an ounce of dignity would, judge the authority to be in the wrong and disobey?

Tribunus said...

Dear anony-mouse,

You seem to have difficulty distinguishing between

(a) revolution which means overthrowing the state;

and

(b) merely objecting to an order which ought not to be obeyed.

If you think that anyone who refuses to obey an immoral law is necessarily overthrowing the whole state, then you may find that you are in a minority of about one.

A little common sense goes a long way, anonymouse.

MijmerMaarten said...

You do know the nazis did not come to power via revolution, and that many collaborateurs did what you preach here, namely obey authority. If your form of christendom tells us to be sheep and just follow the herd, as you appear to be doing here, then your religion is the single biggest threath to Democracy and civilisation.

Tribunus said...

No, that is nonsense.

The Nazis proclaimed a revolution, practised revolution and took power by a revolution.

They duped the electorate into giving them marginally more votes than other parties but the real revolution came thereafter when they began to shred the Constitution, culminating in the illegal Reichstag Fire Act, the Enbaling Acts and the seizure of power by the Chancellor who made himself "Fuehrer", a post that never existed in the German Constitution.

That is revolution.

If you are such a fool as to think that what is said on this Blog is "be sheep and just follow the herd", then you clearly have not read it, or cannot read or have an obstinate objection to the plain truth.

And it is THAT which is the biggest threat to democracy and civilisation.

On the other hand, the Roman Catholic religion is the organisation that MADE civilisation and best preserved true democracy.

But then those who hate the Catholic religion soon enough show themselves as enemies of logic, reason and truth.