“The beast THAT WAS, and is not; and is about to come …”
Other leading causes that brought life to the beast “THAT WAS”:
7) Freedom of the Press,
8) Hate mongers and revolutionary agitators abound,
9) The Fires of Revolution and are stoked,
“In early May of 1789, a lawyer named Maximillian Robespierre went to Versailles to serve as a deputy at the Estates General (A legislative body made up of deputies or representatives from each of the three estates). He was a true representative of the people; from the beginning, he incited unrest among the staid deputies when he proclaimed that all estates should pay taxes. Robespierre’s perspective was guided by Enlightenment logic, and it quickly gathered popularity as well as derisive ire.
Nearly two months of heated debate fueled the long-dormant Estates General, and the members of the third estate (the peasantry) even won over some members of the clergy and nobility to their cause. But discussion was silenced on June 20, 1789, when members of the first and second estates bolted the doors of the Estates General shut, undaunted, deputies found an unoccupied indoor tennis court and reconvened there. They identified themselves as the National Assembly and passionately swore to write a constitution for the people of France, in what became known as the Tennis Court Oath.
During the early days of the National Assembly, there was a shred of hope that Louis might endorse this constitution. But when 30,000 of the king’s troops were positioned around Paris, the people realized that reform would not be won through POLITICAL promises and hopeful treatises. They responded by creating a homespun militia. The people broke into armories and swept the stores clean of firearms.
Then, Louis made the fateful decision to dismiss the minister of finance from his position. The people viewed this as a direct retaliation to their cause. There was no mobilization of troops, no grand pronouncement of attack. On July 14, sheer chaos broke out in the streets of Paris, and the people headed for the Bastille.
After the fall of Bastille…Louis could scarcely believe the news, but the National Assembly took it in stride. It was a victory for the people, and bloodshed was natural in revolution, wasn’t it? But this was an important turning point for France. There was no longer any possibility for reform — the movement had organically become a revolution.”
The National Assembly quickly drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man, in which Louis was essentially written out of authority. All men were declared equal; the class system a distant memory of France’s feudal past. Ever a man of the people, Maximillian Robespierre authorized freedom of the press so that information could quickly be disseminated to the streets of Paris.
However, Freedom of the press paved the way for irresponsible journalism.
Jean Paul Marat and Jacques Rene Hebert, respective authors of L’Ami du people and Le Pere Duchesne, were RECKLESS PROPAGANDISTS.
In many ways, their newspapers kept stride with the mounting tension, but they also STOKED THE FIRES OF REVOLUTION. What Robespierre did for the Estates General and the National Assembly, Marat and Hebert did for the people of France. Their words excited the third estate (the poor, the uneducated), confirming in their minds that the revolution was a natural and just movement. But with increasingly vulgar language and paranoid indictments, the newspapers were less credible sources of information than they were death warrants for the clergy and nobility. (Kind of reminds of how the news media today acts doesn’t it?)
As the events of the French Revolution slowly unfolded, the rest of the world had been watching guardedly from a distance. Britain and other European nations were delighted to watch the superpower implode, but they’d later be horrified at the escalating bloodiness of the revolution. Americans were a degree more sympathetic; France had largely funded their revolution. One difference between the nations was that the United States had emerged as a republic (a government in which the power lies in the people’s hands and popular vote decides the leaders), and France was still a constitutional monarchy (a limited monarchy in which the king or queen is limited in legislative powers).”
“The wave of revolutionary fervor and widespread hysteria quickly swept the countryside. Revolting against years of exploitation, peasants looted and burned the homes of tax collectors, landlords and the seigniorial elite. Known as the Great Fear (“la Grande peur”), the agrarian insurrection hastened the growing exodus of nobles from the country and inspired the National Constituent Assembly to abolish feudalism on August 4, 1789, signing what the historian Georges Lefebvre later called the “death certificate of the old order.”
With the advent of the information age, the internet and social media, news coverage on various issues, controversies, troubles, climatic events and etc. reach the ears of the people worldwide almost instantly; instantly stirring emotions both pro and con. Such information calls many to action, not always productive, but off times destructive.
Here too we have very little need to point out the comparisons between the contributions of the press today and that of the past in inciting civil discord and hatred amongst the people, the evidence is so overwhelming that only a blind man could not see this. The selfish desire of the individual journalist (?) as well as the news organization itself to sell a story whether true or not is the prime mover behind this. It should be noted that not all those who stir the pot, have come from the press alone many such agitators hold religious and governmental positions as well.
We will continue with this in our next post.
