Civilization #47: The Passion of Robespierre

So, we continue the French Revolution today. And last class, we looked at Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and how he is the philosopher-poet of the revolution. He provided the dream for the revolution. He told the French that there was a promised land of reason, where if you use your reason, which is God's gift to us, you could build a new society. A utopia, a kingdom on Earth. And today's class, we will look at Robespierre, Maximilien Robespierre, who is a prophet who will take his people into the promised land. All right, so he is the main instigator, the main leader of the French I'm going to make a very strange argument today about Robespierre that no one has made before.

So, it's going to be very controversial, it's going to be very strange. So, I will do this very slowly, okay? I'm going to make the argument to you that Robespierre saw himself as the second coming of And because he did so, he sacrificed himself in order to save the French Revolution, okay? So, that's my argument to you today. Again, it's going to be a very controversial, provocative argument, so I will work very slowly to explain it. All right. Okay. So, let's review some information we discussed last class.

That's very important. Okay. So, as we discussed last class, traditionally in Europe, there have been two major groups of people, okay? There are the peasants and the poor. And the slaves, okay? So, basically, the lower class, the underclass. And then at the top are the nobility and clergy. Now, there's always been townspeople. There's always been merchants and artisans and craftspeople, but they're the minority. But because of the gunpowder revolution, as Europe begins to industrialize, these people are growing in number and in influence and in power, okay? And we call these people today the middle And the middle class is an extremely group of people.

And you can simplify the middle class into three major categories, okay? There's the The bourgeoisie, remember, are the elite of the town. So, these are bankers, lawyers, doctors, factory owners, industrialists, merchants, okay? So, they are the elite of a town. Then you have what we call later the Okay? The proletariat are the lower class of a town. They include artisans, workers. They're often the majority. And then in between are what we call the petite bourgeoisie or the petty middle class. And these are just people who are stuck in between these two major categories.

And they include schoolteachers, small lawyers, okay? Notaries. Small business owners. Okay, so this is an extremely diverse group of people. Okay? Now, as we discussed last class, what often happens in revolution is that the petty bourgeoisie will often become the counter-elites. The counter-elites are just those who lead the people to revolt against the The proletariat will be the muscle or the army.

And the bourgeoisie are in a very unstable position because at first they will often support revolutions because they want more political power. But over time, they will become reactionaries. Or they will try to control the revolution or even kill the revolution because the revolution is threatening their economic interests. Okay? So, this is the pattern that we see in human history. Okay. So, let's go over some terms that we will need in order to understand the French Revolution. Okay.

So, what happens is this. The middle class is growing in France throughout the 17th and 18th century. In fact, they become the main economic for France. At this time, France is the most populous, the wealthiest nation in all of Europe. But, it is an absolute monarchy. An absolute monarchy is one in which the king makes all the decisions. He decides whether or not to go to war. He decides who has the power. He decides who has to pay taxes, okay? He has absolute power in an absolute monarchy. The absolute monarchy leads France into a series of disastrous in the 18th century.

The most prominent, the most important is something called the Seven Years' Fought between France and England primarily. There were other participants as well. And this is a world war, okay? This is really the first world war. You can actually call this World War Zero. It's fought all around the world, in North America, in Europe, in Asia. It's fought everywhere. And France loses this war. Okay, when you lose the war, you incur a lot of debt. But not only that, right after the Seven Years' War, France sponsors the American Revolution.

Okay? So, France becomes the main economic, political, and military sponsor of the Americans in the revolution against the British. And of course, the Americans win this war. But the Americans refuse to pay back the debt that they owe to the French. Okay? So, these are two major wars that have now left France in very dire economic straits. In fact, their treasury is empty. The government has no more money. Food prices are off the charts. People don't have enough to eat. There's no bread. The economy's in tatters. Okay?

So, what the king needs to do now is he needs to call an assembly of the people, okay? And this is what's called the Estates General. The Estates General. And this happens in the year And this marks the beginning of the French Revolution. And the purpose of this Estates General, it's very simple. All the king wants to do is get these people, the nobility, the clergy, and the middle class, the bourgeoisie, to give him more money, okay, to pay more taxes, to replenish the treasury. Of course, the middle class, everyone in the middle class is like, this is a bad deal for us.

We are the main economic engine for France. We pay the most taxes. We do the most work, but we have no political Therefore, we should have some political power. In fact, we should check the power of the king to declare war and to raise taxes, okay? So, they want a constitutional monarchy. At this time in history, no one is saying that they should depose the king and declare a republic. No one is saying that, okay? All they want is a greater diffusion of power. All right, less power for the king, more power for the people.

That makes sense. Okay? But, of course, the king and the elite don't really like this. And the king, this is Louis the 16th, and he's very indecisive, okay? He wants to maintain the absolute monarchy, but he lacks the cutthroat mentality that he would need to his power, okay? So, he should have sent in the military to kill everyone, but he didn't want to do that. He goes back and forth, okay? And so, what happens is now the Estates General breaks off. In the Estates General, there are three estates, three major groups.

There's the, you know, the first estate is called the clergy, the Catholic Church. The second estate is the nobility. The third estate is everyone else, the commoners, okay? So, what happens is the third estate breaks off and they form something called the National Assembly. And they use the National Assembly as a to press for more rights. And the National Assembly, because it's made up of most of the members of the middle class, you have different groups of the proletariat, the petite bourgeoisie, the bourgeoisie.

They argue amongst themselves as So, what's happening now is that within the National Assembly these political groups, political clubs are forming in order to devise strategy and to consolidate ideology amongst themselves, okay? And the most famous of these clubs is called the Do you guys remember? The Jacobins. Right? And have you guys studied this? Okay, the Jacobins. Oh, anyway, the Jacobin club. And this is just a meeting place for revolutionaries to come together and discuss ideology. How do we best proceed? Now, over time as the revolution develops the Jacobins will split off into other groups, okay?

And the reason why they split off is because the economic interests, the political, economic, social interests of these different groups do not align with each other. All right? So, from the Jacobins there will emerge the Feuillants. The Feuillants represent the They don't want any economic change, they want political change. They don't want to have a more equal society, they just want more power over the king, okay? So, these are But then there will also emerge the Girondins. Girondins. Now, Girondins are lower bourgeoisie. These are merchants. These are tradespeople. And what they want is war.

They want France to declare war against their enemies, Austria, Prussia, basically. And the reason why is if there's war, they can make money off it. Okay? Because these are merchants, these are tradespeople, these are industrialists. So, they see war as an opportunity to enrich themselves. They're speculators, basically. And these are called the And then there will also emerge the And the Cordeliers represent a more extreme faction of the Jacobins who want universal suffrage. They want the proletariat to have more rights. Okay. At this point the proletariat is called the sans-culottes.

The sans-culottes. Okay? These are very important people because they provide the muscle for the revolution. Sans-culottes is French meaning without breeches. So, the custom at that time is that if you are a middle-class person, you wear like silk socks, okay? But, they're expensive. So, the lower class of proletariat, they cannot afford these socks. Therefore, they're called the sans-culottes, okay? The And the Cordeliers want to galvanize these people to create a full revolution where the complete social, economic, political, and religious order is overthrown, okay? Then you have people called the And what they want to do is overthrow the Catholic Church.

Okay? So, throughout this revolution, over time, you have different groups emerging with different political interests within the middle class. Okay, does that make sense? But, at the same time, you have threats to the revolution. Okay? So, the main threat is the king because the king, he's a Bourbon, and his brother is king of Spain. He has relatives all over Europe. So, he writes to Austria, Prussia to ask for aid. Can you come in, send your army, and crush this revolution for me because my army is not listening to me, okay?

So, the king is conspiring against the revolution. There are these invasions from Austria and Prussia, okay? And then England also sees the revolution as a threat as Because remember, every nation has a middle class, and they're afraid that the middle class in their nations will rise up against them as well. So, you have these external threats coming in. And then you also have internal threats, okay? You have counter-revolutionaries, the nobility who try to raise their own armies to crush the revolution. You also have economic collapse going on, okay? So, the revolution at this point, in the year 1990, 1991, it seems threatened.

So, what happens is that someone emerges from this chaos to lead the revolution, and his name is Maximilien Robespierre. Okay? Maximilien Robespierre. And Robespierre, he is just a provincial lawyer, okay? He is not from Paris, he is from Arras, a province in France. He's a lawyer, and he's part of the petite bourgeoisie. And he's not imposing, he's not huge. He's not powerful. He doesn't have a faction behind him. And he's not extremely charismatic. He's almost like a nerd. But the thing about Robespierre is that he is completely convinced that the revolution must win and it will win if he works hard enough.

He works 18 hours a day. The moment he gets up, he works. He gives speeches. He gives over 500 speeches in the National Assembly over his career. He is extremely virtuous. He comes to Paris with no money and he leaves Paris with no money. His entire career as a lawyer back at his hometown he spent defending the poor and the weak against the powerful.

And he has very clear ideas about how to proceed with the revolution based on Jean-Jacques Rousseau, okay? He sees himself as a disciple of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Okay, remember last class we looked at Rousseau's ideas and how to implement a kingdom of reason. Okay?

Robespierre, because he is the most virtuous, he has the most conviction, he becomes the de facto leader of the revolution. He becomes head of something called the Committee for Public Safety. And it's not a dictatorship, okay? He's not a dictator. But he's head of a committee that advises the National Assembly on how to proceed. And because he is the most forceful, he has the most ideas, his ideas usually win out.

And over time, as he accumulates more and more power, he makes more and more radical proposals. His most radical proposal is called the Reign of Terror. The Reign of Terror is a time of mass execution, okay, the guillotine in Paris.

In order to solidify the revolution, in order to advance the revolution, Robespierre says, "We must instill in our enemies. We must investigate our enemies and execute them if they are plotting with the king against us. If they are plotting with enemies against us, if they are conspiring against us, if they are engaged in economic speculation, if they are hoarding food, these are all enemies. They're trying to sabotage the revolution, therefore we must kill them." Okay? So, over a few years, three or four years, the Reign of Terror will kill at least 40,000 people within Paris alone, okay?

We don't know in the how many people are The Reign of Terror will also execute the king and queen. So, they will kill the king and queen as All right?

Historians have been debating for a long time if the Reign of Terror was necessary because obviously it's a terrible thing to kill tens of thousands of people for holding opposing political opinions, okay? And a lot of these people were in fact just political enemies of Robespierre. Okay? So, how can we best understand the Reign of Terror? Well, if you think about it, in this class, we've actually studied the Reign of Terror before, okay? It's the idea of human sacrifice.

And we have discussed this before. All societies engaged in war in pre-modern times practiced human sacrifice. The Romans did it, the Vikings did it, the Aztecs did it, okay? The Aztecs were famous for doing it. So, why would you do human sacrifice if you're engaged in war? Okay? Well, there are different And there are three main reasons. The first reason is you want to unify and energize the people. Okay? When people observe or they watch human sacrifice, when they engage in a spectacle, they become much more excited.

They have bloodlust, okay? We call that bloodlust. They want to kill now, okay? They're excited to kill. Okay? That's one purpose. Second purpose, of course, is to your enemy. To put fear in your enemy, okay? That's obvious. And then there's a third reason, which is the most The third reason is to break a taboo.

Okay? To break the taboo. When you break a taboo, you are signaling that you've crossed a line, and you can never go back. You can no longer compromise. You can only move forward. Okay? So, the taboo they broke in the French Revolution is they killed the king and queen of France. That meant that now all of Europe would unite against the French, and they would come and exact a bloody vengeance on the people of France. The enemies of France, which include the Netherlands, Prussia, Austria, Russia, the five most powerful nations in all of Europe.

They will now come and they will not stop until they have the dead king and queen, okay? Because the French people have broken this taboo and the monarchs cannot allow the French people to get away with this, okay? Because if they did, then this would encourage their people to rise up against them as well. Okay? So, with the Reign of Terror, you break the taboo. And when you break the taboo, then you are now all in. You are fully committed to the revolution.

There's no more compromise. There's no more surrender. There's no more going back into the past. You are now in the promised land. You are now in a new world. You must fight to the death for this world.

Does that make sense? But, what happens, and it's very strange, is Robespierre has accumulated all the power in France. He's not a dictator. He doesn't have the power to be a dictator, but he's a de facto dictator. And at this point in his life, he's only like in his mid-30s, he could choose to become king, right? He could be like, you know what? For the revolution to fully succeed, I need to become the dictator. And the people love him. The Jacobins love him. He would win. But, at this particular stage in the he decides to just sit at home.

He goes into seclusion. He kind of gives up. And this gives time for his enemies to conspire against him. And he has a lot of enemies because this is the Reign of Terror. Robespierre is virtuous. And no one can be as virtuous as Robespierre. And his enemies think this guy is crazy. He's going to kill whoever is not as virtuous as he is. And therefore, we're all going to be killed at some point, okay? So, they decide to act first. So, the National Assembly conspires to vote for his kind of catenation.

They vote for his death. And he does not resist. The most he does is he goes to the National Assembly and he gives a speech cursing them all. And then afterwards, they send soldiers to arrest him and he doesn't really resist. And then he's sent off to the guillotine and then he's killed. And that's the end of Robespierre. And this is a mystery, a paradox, to historians, like why did Robespierre fall? Why did he just give up? Okay?

All right. So, to answer this question, I'm going to provide you with a new idea. And this is a hard idea, so please feel free to challenge me or ask questions. Make sure you're clear, okay? All right. So, the thing you need to understand is this. In a time of revolution, when people reject authority, when people say, "I no longer believe in God. I refuse to listen to my priest. The nobility is evil. I refuse to submit to the king." The question then is, what takes charge? What guides society now?

And the answer is mythologies. Mythologies are the subconscious operating system of society. Okay, does that make sense? So, what mythology does everyone in France know? Well, the story of Jesus, right? What's the story of Jesus?

He is persecuted for telling the truth, for trying to bring about a more equal, more just In fact, he is murdered. He's crucified, okay? Crucifixion, okay? And the moment he's crucified, people discover that he's truly the son of God.

And then, after he dies, he ascends to where he awaits the day when he has to return, okay? And he does return in something called the Second Coming.

The Second Coming. In the Second Coming, Jesus will become the god of war, okay? The Messiah. And he will lead his people into victory against the entire world. And once he defeats the entire world, he will build a kingdom of heaven, a thousand years of peace. And then, after the thousand years, heaven will come onto Earth, we will all become immortal, and those who have been good will live in heaven, those who have been bad will burn in hell, okay? The final judgment. Okay, so that's a story, a mythology, that everyone understands, that everyone knows in France.

And so, even though the French Revolution was a revolution of reason, when they're trying to reject the Christian faith, the mythology is still implanted in their brains. And this mythology becomes the operating system of the French Revolution.

Using this mythology, let's now ask ourselves, what happened when Robespierre died? Okay? Three things happened when Robespierre died. The first thing that happened is Robespierre became a scapegoat. Okay? A scapegoat is someone who takes the blame for all the crimes of the So, the Reign of Terror is when the Parisians killed 40,000 people, and some of them were innocent. And when Robespierre died, he took the blame for the Reign of Terror, right? They killed him because they called him a tyrant. He's the one responsible for those 40,000 deaths. And he said, "Sure, I'll take the blame." Okay?

He becomes a scapegoat. That's the first thing that happens. Second thing that happens is he becomes a martyr for the revolution. He died in order to save the revolution. Robespierre said to the people, "If you need me to die in order to cleanse you of your sins, then I will do so. I will do so because what matters is not my life, but the revolution." Okay? He becomes a martyr. And when he becomes a martyr, what he did was he made people feel guilty for having persecuted and killed him, okay?

And so, the third thing he becomes is a role model or a hero. He's telling the French people, "Listen, I could have become king. I had all the power in the world, but I chose to sacrifice myself because what mattered most was the revolution. If you feel guilty for having killed me, then you have an obligation to the revolution to make the sacrifice necessary in order to save the revolution," okay? So, this is what happened. The moment he killed himself, he became a scapegoat, a martyr, and a paragon of virtue, a hero to the people.

People will feel guilty for having killed him, and now they will transfer this guilt into promoting and saving the revolution. And so, in other words, the moment that he died, Robespierre became Jesus. He became in the minds of the French the second coming of Jesus. Does that make sense? Okay? So, that's my argument to you. And so, over the rest of the class, we will look at the evidence. And actually, the best evidence is how Robespierre died. So, let's compare the death of Jesus and the death of Robespierre, and you will see they match up.

They line up perfectly, okay? Let's look at the death of And then we'll look at Robespierre. He spends his life preaching the truth to the people and trying to build a more just and equal But he knows that eventually he must die in order to complete his mission, okay? So, in the Last Supper, he tells his followers, the disciples, "One of you will betray me." Okay, betrayal. And of course, this person's name is Judas Iscariot, who betrays Jesus to the high priest of Jerusalem, okay? So, the first thing is betrayal.

But, after the dinner, everyone goes to sleep, and Jesus goes to a quiet place, okay? He isolates Why? Because he knows the soldiers are coming to arrest him and to put him to death, okay? The servants of the high priest are going to come and arrest him. The servants do come to arrest Jesus, and Jesus submits, okay? Submission. He does not resist. But, one of his disciples, Peter, sees what's happening, and he rushes to try to save Jesus. And Peter cuts off the ear of one of the servants of the high priest.

And Jesus tells him, "No. No, no, Peter. Go home. This is what I must do by myself. I must go to the high priest," okay? He goes to the high priest, who then presents him to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, right? And Pontius Pilate says, "Jesus, you've been accused of crimes against your of defying the laws of your God. What do you have to say in your defense?" And Jesus says, "Nothing." Jesus does not defend himself. Okay? So, submission, okay? And then Pontius Pilate says, "Fine.

If you refuse to defend yourself, then I can only condemn you to death." So, Jesus has to bear a cross, okay? And he's bearing the cross, the Jews line up and see him, and they jeer him, okay? They curse him. They spit at him. They throw stones at him. And all this while, there's someone, a soldier, a centurion, following him and whipping him, okay? This is called the Okay? He is punished. And then he is of course crucified. And he's crucified, it's the worst way to die, right?

People, thousands of people come and watch him get crucified and then die. Okay? That's the story of Jesus. Guess what, guys? This is the story of the death of Robespierre, too. So, Robespierre is betrayed by his political allies and friends. He helped these people amass power. And once they amass power and Robespierre gets rid of all the other enemies, they see Robespierre as the ultimate threat. So, they conspire against him, okay? So, it's a betrayal.

Robespierre is asked to speak to the assembly, he does, okay? But, he knows the assembly has already condemned him to death. There's no point in him arguing, okay? So, what he does is after his speech, he goes to a building, a town hall, and he goes to the second floor, and he is isolated from everyone, okay? He knows his fate. He knows they're going to come and kill him, and he just stands there. His friends, his most loyal followers, say to him, "Robespierre, they're coming to kill you.

Let's rally the people. Let's go to the sections, the sans-culottes. We have thousands, tens of thousands of loyal followers. Let's rally them. Let's inspire them to revolt. Let's raise an army and kill the entire National Assembly." And Robespierre refuses, okay? Then you have the Paris Leaders from the Paris Commune, they've heard what happened to Robespierre, so they send a delegation to the sections and say, "Hey guys, we need to defend our hero, okay?" And so you have this huge crowd moving towards the National Assembly. And they're waiting for Robespierre to appear before them and say, "Fight!

Fight! Fight!" Okay? Defend the revolution. Save the revolution. Save Robespierre. They're waiting for their hero to come out and lead them. Robespierre refuses to say a word. He just sits there. Everyone's begging Robespierre, "Please, Robespierre, we have to do something." And Robespierre just stares off into space, okay? He's like Jesus at this point. He knows his fate. He knows his destiny. He refuses to fight his destiny. He submits, okay?

The soldiers come and his followers begin into a fight. Some people die, but a soldier shoots a pistol into the jaw of Robespierre, okay? And now he's covered in blood. And he's trying to wipe off the blood, but he's in pain, okay? And even though he's in pain, they still take him to the guillotine. So the passion of Robespierre. He's being driven on a horse cart with his followers, and there's about 100 of them, to the guillotine. They will be all massacred at once, okay? And thousands of people lining up on the streets to shout, "Down with the tyrant!

Down with the tyrant!" Okay? They hate Robespierre. These are people who lost friends, family in the Reign of Terror. So they want to see this guy And ultimately then Robespierre is guillotined. And that's the end of Robespierre.

Do you see how these stories line up perfectly? It is almost as if Robespierre is trying to act out the story of Jesus for the French people. That is his legacy. He wants people to understand that it was Jesus who appeared before them, and Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice because he loved his people in order to rally his people to save the revolution and fight off the enemies of France.

These stories line up too well. Now, we know this story is basically just mythology. But, I keep on telling you guys in history, for us humans, mythology, ideas are real.

Okay? So, Robespierre, remember, this mythology or subconsciously knows this mythology, and he acted it out for the French people in order to inspire them. In order to fully realize the revolution.

In other words, the French Revolution was essentially a religious in which Robespierre volunteered to play the part of Jesus. To be Jesus, you need to make the ultimate sacrifice. You need to sacrifice yourself in front of people, and that's what he did. Okay? And after his death people now see that he's Jesus and now people are inspired to believe that there will be a second coming of Someone will come who will be and who will lead them to final victory against all their enemies. And this person's name is Who comes after Robespierre?

Did you understand? So, Napoleon takes all of this mythology and he uses it in order to become the king of France, okay? Robespierre refused to become king, but Napoleon will become king and we'll discuss Napoleon next class. And this will end our French Revolution All right. So, this is the main argument, okay? So, I provide basically the basic story. But, what's important for us is now to look at the Okay? So, we're going to look at the speeches of Robespierre in the context of French revolutionary history. All right?

To understand his mentality. Right now, what's really important is for us to understand his psychology and ask ourselves, if Robespierre really believed he was Jesus or a prophet, then do his speeches, do his words actually provide evidence for this, okay? And I will show you that in fact there is evidence that he does in fact see himself as a prophet. But, before I start the evidence, are you guys clear about this argument? Are you clear about the story I'm telling you? All right? Are you guys clear? All right, good.

So, let's look at the All right. Okay, the So, why Yep. Robespierre's confident that people will actually realize that he's acting as a savior. That is a great question. Does Robespierre know that people will know? He doesn't, right? He can't know. And in fact, if you look at the Bible, the Bible is very clear. Jesus himself was full of doubt. He was not completely sure that people will remember him, okay? But that's the problem with faith. If you truly believe in the people, you will have faith in the people.

You understand? So, it was an act of Robespierre never at any point said, "I am the prophet. I need to sacrifice myself in order to save the revolution," okay? He hints at that, but he never really says it. And so, he himself is an extremely conflicted person. All right? There's a part of him that is pulling him towards his destiny, but there's also another part of him that resists this, okay? Do you understand? We humans are extremely Robespierre was a human being. Okay, does that make sense? He can never be confident that this will work out in the end.

But because he took that leap of faith, it radically changed human history. Okay? Because I believe, okay, and I will argue this, if he actually didn't do this, if he actually just became king, right? If he seized the crown like Napoleon did, the French Revolution would have failed. And we really wouldn't remember the French Revolution. And it really wouldn't change the course of human history. What I will show you next class is because he did so, because he sacrificed himself, it allowed Napoleon to defeat all of Europe, okay?

Without Robespierre's sacrifice, Napoleon could not have become Napoleon. All right? So, does that make sense? No prophet ever truly believes he's the There's always a part of him that is doubtful, that is skeptical. Okay? But he persists. None of and that's what makes him heroic, okay? And this is true for all prophets. Does that make sense? All right. French Revolution. Maximilien Robespierre. Okay, so some basic biographical details about Robespierre, okay? He was born in a town, Arras, which is a province of France, and his family there for a few generations was bourgeoisie.

They were all lawyers. His grandfather was a lawyer, his father was a lawyer. But, his mother, Robespierre's mother, died giving birth to a younger brother. They both died. And then Robespierre's father left the family and died a few years later in Belgium or somewhere, okay? So, Robespierre went from bourgeoisie to petite bourgeoisie. His family is still wealthy, but not as wealthy as before. Robespierre becomes at a very early age, okay? Maybe 7 or 8. He becomes the man of the family, okay? He's responsible for taking care of his younger brother and his younger sister.

His grandparents are still pretty wealthy. They send him to a Jesuit school, where he excels academically, okay? His ambition is really to be Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He wants to be a philosopher. He wants to be like a poet-philosopher, like Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He writes a lot. He dreams of a better world. He's very idealistic. He becomes a lawyer, and as a lawyer, as I mentioned, he spends all his time defending the poor and the weak. He's a champion of the oppressed.

The Estates General is organized, and he goes and becomes a representative. And as I said, over the next few years, he rises to the very top. So, the question we're looking at today is how did Robespierre fall? Okay, so as I mentioned, before the Estates General is called, France is facing economic, financial collapse. And so, King Louis the 16th appoints Jacques Necker to become the finance minister. The thing about Necker is that he understands that, "Listen, if you want people to pay more taxes, you need to give them more political representation." Okay?

So, Necker becomes a champion of the middle class, and he's worshipped by the middle class. Louis the 16th doesn't really like what he has to say, and so they have this back and forth for many years, where Louis the 16th fires him, the people revolt, Louis the 16th hires him back, then fires him again. Okay? So, this goes on for quite some time. Necker will also Around this time, as the Estates General is being called in order to raise more taxes from the people, the Abbé Sieyès, who is a clergyman, he writes a very influential pamphlet called What Is the Third Estate?

Right? Because the first, second, and third estates are being called. The first and second estates have all the power, the third estate has no power. So, he writes a very influential pamphlet asking the question, "What is the Third Estate?" And his answer is, "Everything." Okay? The Third Estate is everyone in France, 99 point 99%. "What has it been until now in the political order? Nothing. What does it demand to be? Something." Okay? So, during this time, pamphlets are like the internet of today. It's how most people get their news.

And the pamphlets become extremely violent and call for radical May 5th, 1789, the three estates meet. King Louis XVI refuses to acknowledge the third estate. He refuses to meet with them. He refuses to heed their demands. So, what happens is the third estate forms its own national assembly, okay? And these people are radical. This is everyone in the middle class, the bourgeoisie, the petite bourgeoisie, the sans-culottes. They want more political power. They want more political representation in government.

While this is happening, people's mood is becoming more and more radical and violent. Okay? So, the people of Paris, they don't have any bread, they're hungry, they're unemployed, they feel hopeless, they feel the king is aloof. So, a group of people storm the Bastille. The storming of the Bastille happens on July 14th, 1789. This is important because the national day of France today is July 14th. Why? Because on July 14th, the people rose up and stormed the fortress of the Bastille in order to get gunpowder, in order to have their own army, okay?

But not only that, they killed the governor of the Bastille and paraded his head in front of everyone. So, people's mood is extremely And this violence is happening all around France. It's been decades of economic stagnation, poverty, military defeat. People want a revolution.

August 27th, 1789, the National Assembly declares a new constitution. Okay? This new constitution is something called the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. It becomes the basis for most constitutions in the world.

Okay? This marks the of a new age in human history. So, let's look at a few passages from the Declaration of the Rights of Man. "For these reasons, the National Assembly do recognize and declare in the presence of the Supreme Being," the Supreme Being is the God of Reason, "and with the hope of his blessing and favor, the following sacred rights of man and of citizens." Okay? Do you understand? These rights were not given to you by the government, they were given to you by God. And these rights can never be taken away from you, okay?

"First, men are born and always continue free and equal in respect of their rights. Civil distinctions, therefore, can be founded only on public utility." Okay? This is a radical statement. Everyone is equal in the eyes of God and therefore in the eyes of the law. If there's nobility, if there's a clergy, it's only because we agree to give them this distinction based on their utility. Okay? Based on the fact that they do public good for us. All right? So, that's a radical "Second, the end of all political associations is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man.

And these rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance of" Okay? These are the fundamental human All government, all laws, all society must be based on these fundamental Liberty, property, security, and resistance of oppression, okay?

"The nation is essentially the source of all sovereignty, nor can any individual or any body of men be entitled to any authority which is not expressly derived from it." So, what this is saying is now we have a new god. It's a nation-state. France becomes the first nation-state. And all authority derives from the idea of the nation. Okay? And no power can supersede the power of the nation. Does that make sense, guys? Okay, this is the beginning of modernity, right?

"Four, political liberty consists in the power of doing whatever does not injure another." You can do whatever you want as long as you don't harm someone else. "The exercise of the natural rights of every man has no other limits than those which are necessary to secure to every other man the free exercise of the same right. And these limits are determined only by the law. Five, the law ought to prohibit only actions hurtful to society. What is not prohibited by the law should not be hindered, nor should anyone be compelled to that which the law does not require."

Okay, so this is a new idea of freedom. Negative freedom, okay? Before it was positive freedom where you had to do certain things to become a citizen. Now, it's like if you're a citizen, you can do whatever you want as long as you are not hurting someone else and you're not breaking the law.

And so this is where our modern idea of freedom comes from. All right, six. "The law is an expression of the will of the community. All citizens have a right to concur either personally or by their representatives in its formation. It should be the same to all whether it protects or punishes, and all being equal in its sight are equally eligible to all honors, places, and employments according to different abilities without any other distinction than that created by their virtues and talents." Not only is the government now responsive to the needs and demands of the people, but the people can at any time become the Okay?

So, the people are above the okay? So, the hierarchy now is at the very top is the nation. And then below the nation now is the people. Right? And then below the people now is the government. The government only exists in order to protect the rights of the people. So, the government only exists at the behest concurrence of the people. All right. Number 10. "No man ought to be molested on account of his opinions, not even on account of his religious opinions, provided his avowal of them does not disturb the public order established by law."

Okay? So, this is now the separation of church and state. You are free to believe whatever you want. 11. "The unrestrained communication of thoughts and opinions being one of the precious rights of man, every citizen may speak, write, and publish freely, provided he is responsible for the abuse of this liberty in case the government by law." You are free to say whatever you want, okay? This is the freedom of Okay, so the Declaration of the Rights of basically defines the new liberal order. Last is 17. "The right to property being inviolable and sacred, no one ought to be deprived of it except in case of evident public necessity legally ascertained and on condition of a previous just indemnity," okay?

So, property is also a sacred right. If you have property, it is yours by the will of God. Obviously, Robespierre does not like this idea, okay? So, Robespierre gives a speech arguing against this idea, and he proposes an amendment to this idea.

Now, this is Robespierre speaking before the National Assembly. "In the last session, I took the floor in order to make a few important additions to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It was my intention to expand your declarations of the theory of property by the addition of a few articles. Let the word property frighten no one. Filthy souls who value only your money, I will not violate your treasures, even though I know how unclean the source from which they come is," okay?

So, what he is saying is, everyone, I know you guys are rich and you all want to protect your property. I won't take away your property. But, please remember, every one of you stole this from someone else. This is how you became rich. Through theft. Through crimes. Okay? So, Rousseau has a contempt for the wealthy.

"Ask any one of these traders in human flesh what is property," okay? How do people make money? Through the slave trade, basically. "He will show you the long coffin called a ship in which together and chained. Men who seem yet alive and he will tell you, 'Look at my property. I have bought it head for head.'" It's a known fact that at this time in history, a lot of people are getting rich off the slave trade, okay? "Question this noble man who has goods and subjects and who believes that the world can come to an end now that he no longer possesses them and he will expound similar ideas on property to you," okay?

Rich people love their land. They love their wealth. "Question the members of the Capetian dynasty and they will tell you that the most sacred property is the right of inheritance that they have, the ancient right of oppression, the 25 million persons now populating the territory of of destroying them, of treating them legally and morally according to their own will." Well, so what Rousseau is saying is that property cannot be a sacred right because property requires the oppression of others. Right? How do you make your money? How do you make money off land?

By getting people to farm them, right? You're oppressing people. You're exploiting people. Therefore, this is a You're saying property is a sacred right, then you're saying like God gave people this right. But God would never give you the power to oppress others. That makes no sense.

"You have increased the number of articles in order to afford the largest possible latitude to the right to one's property, and yet you have not added a word in limitation of this right with the result that the declaration might make the impression of having been created not for the poor, but for the rich, the speculators, for the stock exchange jobbers. To remedy this defect, I propose the following additions." Okay? So, he's saying at this point in the revolution, the entire middle class, including the bourgeoisie, are participating in this revolution.

But he's also saying that you, the have written this constitution for your benefit and not for the benefit of everyone, for the people. So, we need to make changes. "First, property is that right held by each citizen to dispose freely of that portion of the general goods guaranteed him by the laws." So, it's society that gives people property, not God who gives people property, okay? There's a difference. "Second, the right to property, like all other rights, is limited by the obligation to regard the rights of" All right? So, when you speak, you can do whatever you want as long as you don't, you know, harm others.

Well, what Rousseau is saying is like that should also apply to property. You can own property as long as you are doing so in a way that does not exploit "And the third is, property may not cause any detriment to our security or to our liberty or existence or to the property of our neighbor," okay?

Owning property should also not harm the national interest as well. So, he's putting severe limitations on the idea of property because what Robespierre wants is a society based on equality of all.

Now, as this revolution is happening, there's a man named Joseph Ignace Guillotin who will create something called the guillotine. Okay? He's a doctor and he wants to create a more humane way of executing people. The guillotine will become the main mechanism of terror during the French Revolution, right? So, if you are an enemy of the state, they will guillotine you.

As all this is happening, the king is trying to work with the National But, the king is also conspiring against the National Assembly by trying to write to his family and friends overseas to raise armies against the revolution.

On June 20th to 21st, 1792, the king and queen actually try to flee France, but they're recognized and they're captured and sent back to Paris. A month later, August 10th, the people actually storm the king's residence and basically massacre his Swiss Guard, the mercenaries who are paid to protect him.

Finally, they decide to just kill this guy because he's threatening the revolution, okay? King Louis is always trying to conspire against the revolution, so they break this taboo, okay? Because remember, many people believe that the king is a son of God and they kill him, okay? And Robespierre is explaining why and it's very simple, okay? "Louis may die in order that the revolution may live." It's that simple. What matters first and foremost is a In order to advance a revolution, everyone is expendable, including Robespierre, okay? Robespierre is only the prophet of revolution.

He is not the revolution. As this is happening, there are now counter-revolutionaries. So, in the Vendée, which is in west France, peasants are rebelling against the French Revolution. Why? Because the French Revolution is calling for a secular state. It's calling for a negation of religion. And the thing about peasants is they love their Okay? So, the peasants are now rising up against the French Revolution, and it is a brutal war of genocide. Okay, there are massacres and atrocities on both on May 31st, Robespierre takes command of the National Assembly. This is something called the Montagnard coup because he's in charge of a faction called the Mountain, okay?

This is French for And of course, he then begins the Reign of Terror, okay? We discussed why he starts the Reign of Terror. He needs to unite the energies of people to commit them fully to the revolution, okay? We can't go back. There's no coming back after this Reign of Terror. We have too many enemies now.

The thing about the Reign of Terror is he kills his enemies, but more importantly, he's also killing his political allies, okay? The people on the left, he's also killing as well because they also threaten the revolution. So, this is Danton, and he's one of the leaders of the Cordeliers, which as I mentioned, is a very left-wing political group calling for universal suffrage, for property rights, for the sans-culottes. And he's seen as a threat to the revolution. And like Robespierre, he's also fanatical. He's a fanatical prophet.

So, the National Assembly votes to condemn him to death, and he says, "I have said and I shall repeat, my home will soon be in oblivion and my name in the Pantheon. And here is my head. It will answer for everything. My life is a burden to me. I shall be glad to be rid of it," okay? He's like, "Screw you all. I don't care. I have done God's work." "If I must rest, I shall rest." Okay, and then he's guillotined.

Jacques Hébert is the leader of the Hébertists. He's a journalist, and he's calling for the complete abolishment of the Catholic Church. And of course, the peasants don't like that. The peasants would all unite against you. So, he's seen as a threat to the revolution, even though he is a close ally of Robespierre, and Robespierre also has him killed. Okay? So, Robespierre is not just killing his enemies, he's also killing his friends as well. And it's all in order to advance the So, now Robespierre needs to explain why this is happening, okay?

And he presents a vision of the revolution, which tells us that he sees himself as a prophet. He's trying to build a new world. Right now, there's a war between good and evil, and good must triumph, no matter what the cost. All right. So, his speech before the National Assembly to explain the Reign of Terror. "To judge by the power and the will of Republican soldiers, it will be easy to defeat the English and the traitors. But we have another task of no less importance, but unfortunately of greater This task is a task of frustrating by an access of energy, okay?

So, the Reign of Terror is to energize the people, right? The eternal intrigues of all enemies of freedom within the country and of paving the way for the victory of the principles on which the general will depends," okay? So, our true enemies are not the English, the Austrians, the Prussians. Our true enemies are those traitors within us. They're the ones who most threaten the revolution.

This is another speech, okay? "What's the goal toward which we are heading?" Why are we doing this? Why the Reign of Terror? "The peaceful enjoyment of liberty and" Kingdom, kingdom on Earth. Utopia. Paradise, okay? "A justice and equality. The reign of that eternal justice whose laws have been inscribed not in marble and stone, but in the hearts of all men, even in that of the slave who forgets them and in that of the tyrant who denies them." Okay? This law, this justice, this equality is what God promised us because it's implanted in our hearts.

We all yearn for this world when we're all When justice prevails. Okay? We are fighting for the freedom and the liberation of all humanity from oppression. That's why we're "We seek an order of things in which all the base and cruel passions are in chains." Okay? So, last class we discussed Jean-Jacques Rousseau. And remember, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, his most famous line is we are born free, but we are all in chains. Okay? So, this is a rewriting of that idea. So, what keeps us in chains are our emotions.

So, we want a world in which our reason prevails and we are in control of our emotions. Then we are truly liberated. "All the beneficent and generous passions are awakened by the laws. Where ambition becomes the desire to merit glory and to serve our country." Okay? So, your ambition is not to gain wealth at the expense of others. Your ambition is to help the community grow and thrive. "Where distinctions are born only of equality itself. Where the citizen is subject to the magistrate, the magistrate to the people, and the people to justice.

Where our country assures the well-being of each individual and where each individual proudly enjoys our country's prosperity and glory. Where every soul grows greater through the continual flow of Republican sentiments and by the need of deserving the esteem of a great people. Where the arts are the adornments of the liberty which ennobles them, and commerce the source of public wealth rather than solely the monstrous opulence of a few families." Guys, he's talking about communism. Okay? So, I'm going to a world in which everyone is equal. Everyone is free to do what he or she wants and this will lead to the general prosperity, wealth, and happiness of the entire nation.

So, Robespierre is dreaming of a world in which everyone is equal. "The great purity of the French Revolution's fundamental elements, the very sublimity of its objective is precisely what creates our strength and our weakness." Our idealism is what gives us power. Okay? "Our strength because it gives us the victory of truth over deception and the rights of public interest over private interest. Our weakness because it rallies against us all men who are vicious, all those who in their hearts plan to despoil the people, and all those who have despoiled them with impunity.

And those who reject liberty as a personal calamity and those who have embraced the revolution as a livelihood and the republic as it were an object of prey." Okay? So, we are fighting a war of good versus evil. Among us are men of good who want to build a better world, who care for others. But there are also among us who use the revolution in order to his or her interests.

That's why we're fighting this war. We're trying to rid the world of those who seek to exploit others, who prey on others. Okay? Who enjoy being bad. That's why we're fighting this war.

"Hence the defection of so many ambitious or greedy men who since the beginning have abandoned us along the way because they had not begun the voyage in order to reach the same goal." Okay? "One could say that the two contrary geniuses that have been depicted competing for control of the realm of nature are fighting in this great epoch of human history to shape irrevocably the destiny of the world and that France is a theater of this mighty struggle." Okay? This is the end of the This is the end of the world.

This is good versus evil. Good must triumph. It must. So, every sacrifice must be "Without, all the tyrants encircle you, within, all the friends of tyranny conspire. They will conspire until crime has been robbed of hope. We must smother the internal and external enemies of the republic or perish. In this situation, the first maxim of your policy ought to be to lead the people by reason and the people's enemy by terror." Okay? This Reign of Terror, it is about the ultimate victory against evil. We are killing our enemies because our enemies want to destroy all good in the world.

"If the mainspring of popular government in peacetime is virtue, amid revolution it is at the same time 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 a general principle of democracy applied to our country's most pressing needs." We have to be as brutal as our as if we are truly to promote democracy. Okay, there's no other All right. So, the Reign of Terror is just one policy that Robespierre adopts in order to save the revolution.

But, he also adopts a new religion called the festival, the cult of the Supreme Being, okay? This is a new religion where God is the god of reason. All right? So, Robespierre is adopting a lot of different policies. And again, he is working selflessly in order to promote the revolution. But, eventually he gets exhausted, okay? He just breaks down. He has a nervous breakdown because it's too Like, he wants people to be virtuous. He wants people to be reasonable. And everywhere he sees, like he sees everyone in front of him and everyone's plotting against him.

Everyone's trying to exploit the revolution for his or her own benefit, okay? And eventually Robespierre is brought down and he is guillotined, okay? But, let us look at his last speech to fully understand how he sees the revolution and his own death. Okay, this is his last speech before the National Assembly. This is two days before he is to be executed. Okay, this is July 26, "The enemies of the Republic called me tyrant," okay? The National Assembly is now calling for his execution because he's a tyrant.

"Were I such, they would grovel at my feet. I would gorge them with gold. I should grant them impunity for their crimes and they would be grateful." Right? If I'm a tyrant, then I would make political alliances. I would bribe people. I would benefit people. But, I don't do that. I'm incorruptible. I'm virtuous.

"Were I such, the kings we have vanquished, far from denouncing Robespierre, would lend me their guilty support." Okay? So, the kings of Netherlands, Austria, Prussia, Russia are all aligned against the French Revolution. Why? Because they're afraid of revolution at home. Right? So, Robespierre is saying, "Listen, if I just become a king, they would marry their daughter to me and we'd all be one big happy family." Okay? They would not see me as a threat.

"There would be a covenant between them and me. Tyranny must have tools. But, the enemies of tyranny, whither does their power tend? To the tomb and to immortality. What tyrant is my protector? To what faction do I belong?" Everything I've done is for the people of France and you know this.

"Since the beginning of the revolution has crushed and annihilated so many detected traitors. You, the people, our principles, are that faction. A faction to which I'm devoted and against which all the scoundrelism of the day is banded." Okay? It is because I, Robespierre, am the only virtuous person who has fought for the revolution, now do you conspire against "The confirmation of the Republic has been my object, and I know that the Republic can be established only on the internal basis of morality." Okay? Only if we are virtuous can we win out in the end against evil.

"Against me, against those who hold kindred souls, the league is formed. My life, all my life, I abandon without a regret. I have seen the past, I foresee the future." I am the prophet. "I have seen the past, and I foresee the" You will kill me. I accept my fate. "What friend of his country would wish to survive the moment when he could no longer serve it, when he could no longer defend innocence against oppression?" You have taken away my powers? Fine, take away my life as well, because I live only to serve.

"Wherefore should I continue in an order of things where intrigue eternally triumphs over truth, where justice is mocked, where passion is the most abject or fears the most absurd override the sacred interests of humanity? The pollution has" So, the revolution has been polluted. It is now corrupt. If you take my life, I'll be glad to give it to you.

"Question history and learn how other defenders of liberty in all times have been overwhelmed by calumny," okay? All prophets in their time were persecuted, including Jesus and Socrates. "But their traducers died also. The good and the bad disappear alike from the earth, but in very different conditions. All Frenchmen, all my countrymen, let not your enemies, with their desolating doctrines, degrade your souls and enervate your virtues." Now is the time to stand up and fight for the revolution. I may die, but the revolution must live. "Death is not an eternal sleep.

Citizens, if faced the tomb that model graven by sacrilegious hands which breathes over all nature a funeral crepe takes from oppressed innocence its support and affronts the beneficent disposition of death.

Inscribe rather therefore these words, 'Death is the commencement of immortality.' I leave to the oppressors of the people a terrible instrument which I proclaim with the independence befitting one whose career is so nearly ended. It is the awful truth, thou shalt" Yes, today I die, but so will you. And when we all die, we must face our We must all see God and we must account for our lives. "I go to God in full conscience." I'm happy to go directly to God and await my fate. Okay, and these are his last words.

"Why should I wish to live under a system where intrigue triumphs over truth, where justice is a lie, where the base passions and the most ridiculous of terrors supersede in man's heart the most sacred duties? Why should I regret to escape from the eternal torture of seeing this horrible session of traitors who by concealing the turpitude of their souls under the veil of virtue and even of friendship will leave posterity in doubt which was the greater, the cowardice or their crimes?"

Members of the National Assembly were elected to serve the people. You have only served yourself. You have only fought for your own economic And because you see me as a threat, you see Robespierre as a man of purity, of virtue, of reason, you conspire against me. And I am happy to be condemned to death because it will liberate me from this evil world that you have created. But upon my death, there shall come vengeance.

So, that's it, guys. That's Robespierre. All right. So, does this make sense? Okay? He sees himself as a prophet who must save the revolution. At first, he believes that he must kill his enemies, the enemies of the revolution, in order to save the revolution. But then he recognizes that no, no, no. This Reign of Terror isn't really about energizing people. It's really about the enemies of his allies. Okay? It's really about political And so, he recognizes that if this revolution is to really triumph, then he must make the ultimate Rather than try to seize the crown, he must give his life for the revolution to set an example for everyone, especially the oppressed and the weak.

And after he dies, this will energize France. It will unite It becomes a hurricane. Okay? The French Revolution now becomes a hurricane. All right? And Napoleon will come, he will take this hurricane, and he will unleash it on the entire world, and he will conquer the entire world. And that's what we'll do next class. Okay? We'll look at Napoleon. But does this make sense to you guys? Any questions?

Yeah, go. Okay. So, the question is are people conscious of what Robespierre is doing? And I know this is a hard argument, and I know this is hard to understand, but this is all happening Okay? This is all happening without people being aware of it. Robespierre is not aware of it, the people are not aware of it. Okay? So, the argument goes like this. First of all, is the collective subconscious.

Okay? Mythology is the collective subconscious. That's the first idea. Okay? Does that make sense to you? Okay. Second idea is this. When authority breaks down, the mythology takes over. Okay, do you understand? Okay? The argument is this. Usually, someone in authority orders people around, right? Someone in authority, whether it's a general or a priest or a teacher, tells you what to do. But when you deny this authority, when you reject this authority, what tells you what to do? Well, mythology, okay? Your collective Okay? You're guided by your collective subconscious, even though you don't know The third argument is that is essentially a play.

Okay? A mythology is a play. This play requires actors. Okay? So, the leaders become now the actors. This play must take place because that's what people want. Now you need actors. You need volunteers to come and be the actors in this play. So, whoever volunteers now must play that and then people will follow that person. Okay? So, Robespierre played the role of Jesus, so people followed him. Even though people don't really know why they're following him, okay? Does that make sense? But they're following him because he's willing to play the role that's required of him in this play that's being acted out during the French But, and this is really important, this play only works if people play the role they're supposed to play.

When they speak the lines they're supposed to speak, right? That's really important. Because what happens is if people break the role, and instead of people listen, I was just acting, the entire play dies. Okay? The play dies. Why is this important? Because next class, we will look at Napoleon. Okay? In the beginning, Napoleon is playing his role. Right? He's the Messiah come to Earth to lead the French people to final victory against evil, to unite the world in good. He's playing that role. But then he does something that he should not do, and which breaks the play, and which is Do you guys know?

What does Napoleon do that Robespierre doesn't do? That's right. He calls himself emperor. You're not supposed to do that. If you're a Robespierre, you would never declare yourself emperor. You're going to make yourself first citizen, you're going to make yourself consul, dictator, whatever, but you cannot make yourself emperor because now you're like everyone Right? And when he does that, and this is very important, he destroys the French Revolution. And after that, France is now destroyed by their enemies. Napoleon falls.

Does that make sense, guys? So, only if playing your role can this play work out. Once this play works out, people are energized to sacrifice their lives. Okay? The reason why Napoleon at first could defeat all his enemies is his soldiers were not afraid to die. Okay? They didn't care. They're like, "Well, you know, if we die, we're going to heaven." That's what Robespierre did. Okay, but we'll discuss this next class. Does that make sense? So, it's a hard argument to make because I'm arguing there is an operating system to society that we don't ever see.

Okay? That we don't ever talk about. But once we see this, okay, then it helps us explain the world we live in. It explains a lot of history to us. But you need to be able to see it first. And most people don't see it, okay? If you look at the traditional accounts of the French Revolution, it's always these economic, political, structural forces, okay? I'm presenting a different idea here. Okay? Does that make sense? Great. Any other questions?

So, like you mentioned that Reign of Terror is a kind of human sacrifice? Yep. And it is like a way to replicate Jesus? No. No. The Reign of Terror was a form of human sacrifice, okay? They literally took their enemies and they killed them in front of everyone, right? And that's no different from the Aztecs, no different from the Vikings, no different from the Romans, okay? These are all societies that practice human sacrifice in order to unite the people, right? To galvanize the people, energize them, create bloodlust, to terrorize their enemies, and to break taboo, to send a message that we will never go We are going towards total victory.

We won't surrender. We won't compromise, okay? That has nothing to do with Jesus. In fact, the story of Jesus is to tell us we no longer need human sacrifice because Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice, okay? Does that make sense? Okay? But the Reign of Terror, what it did was unleash all this energy, okay? And this energy, it's polluted energy because it's based on violence, on vengeance, on hatred, right? So, what Robespierre decides to do, and it's very clever of him, he needs to now purify this energy, right?

And how do you purify this energy? By becoming a scapegoat, by sacrificing yourself, by telling the French people the Reign of Terror was not your fault. It was my fault. Blame me. Sacrifice me for what happened. I will take the guilt for the nation. I will cleanse you of your sins so that you may move on. Okay? Does that make Okay? Good. Any more questions? Great questions, guys.

Okay. All right. So, this ends part two of the French Revolution. Next class on Tuesday is Napoleon. And this will end the French Revolution trilogy.