Freedom, equality, fraternity.... OR DEATH!
How the old revolutionary slogan works as a blueprint for oppression
In recent time, we were told about how first “words were violence”, (justifying me punching you after you say something) then “thoughts were violence” (if I know you think a certain way, then I can punch you the moment I see you).
Now it is “silence is violence” (where if you don’t march with me, I get to punch you because you are silent, not speaking in support of me).
The only logical next step, as an astute observer explained to me, is that “existence is violence” (the only thing left to do to those who are not on your side, is preventing they exist…).
Those are shocking words, and we might have seen at least the early stages happen in these last crazy few years.
It made me think of something I wrote about several years ago, when I still lived in Flanders, and it is still relevant today.
This thought I wrote about, had to do with the French national feast day, July 14th. After having written about the American Independence Day, July 4th, which linked perfectly with a study of the Declaration of Independence and its Flemish roots, and my own Flemish Feast Day, July 11th, so writing about the French Feast Day of July 14th, is now simply a next step, that follows in this exploration of the concept of liberty.
(And as a disclaimer: we Flemish do not really like the French too much. Few Europeans do, even as we all tend to forget that until a certain little corporal with the small mustache came around, it was France who was Europe’s bully and butcher!)
Here is what I wrote, as food for thought, and offering a historical background to use when thinking about those words.
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Every year, the French celebrate their ‘Quatorze Juillet’, their ‘Bastille Day’, and wherever you are, you will more likely than not hear about it, or you will see posters for commemorative events or French flags appear.
Being of Flemish decent, I indeed have a certain reservation against the French (mainly historical), but the disgust I feel in regards with these commemorations are completely unrelated to these Flemish concerns and lamentations.
Disgust, you read it correctly. Allow me a detour before I explain this a bit more.
On September 25, 1993 Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave a speech in the French town of Les Lucs-sur-Boulogne, at the occasion of the inauguration of the ‘Memorial de la Vendée’.
It certainly is worth the effort and time of reading this (short) speech in its entirety, but I would like to highlight the following paragraph.
“It would be vain to hope that revolution can improve human nature, yet your revolution, and especially our Russian Revolution, hoped for this very effect. The French Revolution unfolded under the banner of a self-contradictory and unrealizable slogan, "liberty, equality, fraternity."
But in the life of society, liberty and equality are mutually exclusive, even hostile concepts.
Liberty, by its very nature, undermines social equality, and equality suppresses liberty--for how else could it be attained?
Fraternity, meanwhile, is of entirely different stock; in this instance it is merely a catchy addition to the slogan. True fraternity is achieved by means not social but spiritual.
Furthermore, the ominous words "or death!" were added to the threefold slogan, effectively destroying its meaning.
I would not wish a "great revolution" upon any nation.”
In those fateful days in July 1789 a revolution started, with repercussions still felt today. It ate her own children, and still raises new offspring, as perfidious as the original. The above slogan is the guideline.
They preached equality, liberty and fraternity. Everyone knows this slogan, and who could be against it? We all want liberty, Americans can definitely relate there! And equality? Sounds great, and it is enshrined that we are all equal before the law. Fair is fair, right? And brotherhood? Perhaps a bit utopian, dreamy, but why not, if we can make that a reality?
But most people forget the second part of this slogan: “or death!”.
As Solzhenitsyn remarked in his speech, this second part effectively destroys the meaning of the preceding 3 words.
He also made the astute observation that the first part, even if looked at by itself, is undermined by an inherent contradiction: liberty and equality can never be obtained at the same time.
Still, we need to go beyond that observation, and look deeper.
In the past century, we see how ‘liberty’ got free reign, in political matters but also in personal issues and matters of morality.
We must be free. Free to do whatever we wish, free of oppressors, free of the institution of the church, free of any and all absolutes, free in our experience of our sexuality, etc.
However, we now see how the second part is being implemented: ‘equality’.
Once the hierarchy has been abolished, the support and the light the church offers has been cut off, and man is turned back on itself in a individualistic freedom run wild, and one no longer has any defense against the next step, which devours the ‘liberty’, gained at such great cost.
Now we see it replaced with a coercion that is being imposed: ‘equality’.
These steps can be seen simultaneous, but show in my opinion a clear inherent progression.
In our recent history, equality between man and woman was a first shot, antiracism a second volley, equality for gays a third. All this under the common denominator of ‘equality’. The arrest by the American Supreme Court in the case Obergefell v. Hodges forms a recent climax.
G.K. Chesterton wrote in ‘The Superstition of Divorce’ that "This triangle of truisms, of father, mother and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it."
This uncovers the target: the destruction of our civilization.
When you see some of the reactions after the Obergefell arrest – despite the well-meaning promises and sworn assurances that the only goal was ‘love’ and that none of this was aimed at any religion, definitely not at the Catholic Church in particular – you can clearly see this was no coincidence. A few days after the arrest, Mark Oppenheimer wrote in ‘Time’ that, in the wake of that arrest, it now really was time to simply completely take away the tax free status of organizations who went against the established public discourse (and for instance do not accept gay marriage) or to greatly reduce that status.
For many churches and parishes, this comes down to forced closure. Many adoption organizations, in a long historic line of Church based charities, simply closed down, beaten by the prospect of very lengthy and very expensive legal battles with no hope to win them. (And next, they tried to make an example out of several nuns who did not want to offer contraception as part of their healthcare plans, as imposed by Obamacare. But those Little Sisters did stand tall, fought back, and won!)
We see how our living of our faith, down to charity and other expressions thereof (!!), are coming under downright attack, because we do not want to conform to the ruling morality and way of thinking.
You can clearly see how this ‘or death’ is still very much alive, perhaps not as drastic as the guillotine, but in practicality nonetheless the same:
Professional expulsion (the CEO of Mozilla, Brendan Eich, lost his job after it came to light that several years prior he had supported a proposal not to legalize gay marriage – lest we forget, at a time this was also the stated opinion of then Senator B. Obama),
Forced closure (several bakeries, catholic orphanages/adoption centers that did not accept gay couples as suitable adoptive families, etc.),
Ostracism (see how e.g. YouTube and Twitter react to any dissonant post!)…
Opposition is not tolerated, not even quietly harboring an opposing opinion.
This brings us to the third segment of that slogan: ‘fraternity’.
As Solzhenitsyn keenly observed, this segment is of a completely different stock, and true fraternity can only be attained on a spiritual level. After abolishing church and hierarchy in name of ‘freedom’, after taking away personal freedom in name of ‘equality’, the next step is ‘fraternity’: it no longer concerns what we do, but what we think, believe, feel…
It no longer suffices to treat gay people with respect, one also needs to agree with them.
Case in point is the story of that jeweler in Mount Pearl, Canada, who agreed to make wedding rings for this lesbian couple. Despite his openness to accept this order, he mercilessly came under fire, because he had in his business a poster with the words “The Sanctity of Marriage IS UNDER ATTACK; Help Keep Marriage Between Man & Woman”.
And much closer home: which Christian hasn’t experienced the instant accusation of ‘bigot’ when just verbally stating not to accept gay marriage, regardless of how they actually treat people?
Still, Solzhenitsyn was wrong to see ‘fraternity’ merely as a catchy addition to the slogan. It fits in the series, and gives expression to a program, the program of the revolution. It is the third part of a strategy that aims to subdue, after our freedom and our identity, now our faith and our opinions.
All this creates dangerous precedents. We allow that our cultural movers and shakers undermine power and authority and promote instead of an organic society a form of hyper-individualism, we allow that our governments jumps into this fray, and imposes ‘equality’ in law.
And we now also see how our opinion and our faith increasingly becomes subjected to the legislator, in name of ‘fraternity’.
In certain circles, being Christian is already equated to hate, racism, sexism, you know the litany… It becomes less and less unthinkable that this stance will find its way to the legislator. In name of fostering fraternity, of course!
Freedom, equality, fraternity. OR DEATH!
That is the bitter fruit of the revolution, to this day diligently working to destroy all we hold as good and sacred.
The simple farmers from the Vendée have already experienced, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of innocents lives, that the revolutionaries tolerate no opposition, as did the simple farmers from my own Waasland, Kempen and Brabant during the 1798 Peasant’s War.
We have to deal with a new generation of revolutionaries, the children and grandchildren of the ‘sans-culottes’, without swords or guillotines, but all the sharper in their rhetoric. Their goals, however, remains the same.
So July 14th is to me the birthday of a dragon, whose spirit is still raging against Western civilization. Therefore, through this detour, my disgust. This day, we have nothing to celebrate…
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So, circling back to the beginning of this article, it seems what that observer had touched upon is not coincidence, but something that has been brewing for a while, as Solzhenitsyn pointed out in his speech.
An old program of oppression, applied today, for the same reason.
And as was suggested several times, and I agree: the best way to respond is with all-out ridicule. Since this was written, we see how ridicule is highly effective: memes with ‘groomer’ in the typical Disney font and such are going viral, and Disney stock is tanking like never before!
It is a very serious business, but we cannot and should not give those ideas that words, thoughts, silence and even existence would equate to ‘violence’, any further life.
They are dangerous, and ridiculous right from the get-go.
Those who espouse such, need at least to be laughed away as the backwards maroons they are.
That way, we cede not an inch to such thinking.
Against their old revolutionary slogan, I echo in defiance: "give me liberty, or give me death!"
A true freedom, leading to an understanding that we are all ‘equivalent’, but NOT ‘the same’, and that true brotherhood comes from having a common Creator who endowed us all with inalienable rights (and responsibilities). And those three concepts bring LIFE, not death.
All is well.
Well written and I agree wholeheartedly with your final paragraph in conclusion..😊
Thank you for expressing, so eloquently, the feelings of most of the world.