“Kojève thought that this revolutionary terror formed the necessary condition for the creation of freedom to come. The realisation of this ‘actual’ freedom came about with the eventual dissolution of ‘absolute’ freedom. In 1918, with Russia standing at the crossroads of history, the constitution of the Bolshevik regime and the previous period of war communism…
Category: terror
Erwan Sommerer: “The riot against State-forms: An anarcho-workerist hypothesis”
“Nicola Massimo De Feo’s thesis is that the pamphlets resulting from the ephemeral collaboration between Bakunin and Nechayev, in particular the Revolutionary Catechism, deserve to be brought back to the forefront of anti-capitalist reflection after a long period of discredit: the primitive and brutal anarchism that we discover there, far from being the mark of a bygone…
Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall: “Thoroughly Modern Maxie: Robespierre’s Relevance for Democracy Today”
“But Robespierre’s challenge remains relevant today: what can we do now, in the face of furious backlash from those who oppose #BlackLivesMatter, feminism, and other social movements, to confront those who would rather deform democracy than see society become more just and egalitarian?”
The tragedy of Haiti in history, drama, and performance
Last week, as I read in The New York Times the four-day series “The Ransom – The Root of Haiti’s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers” and I continued work on Aimé Césaire’s superb drama The Tragedy of King Christophe (1963, 1970) for my book-length project The Tragedy of Revolution, I took the train to Chicago and…
Jason Farago: “The Dangerous Beauty of Jacques-Louis David”
“A landmark exhibition of drawings at the Met brings us into the studio of the French Revolution’s chief propagandist, and stages the ultimate showdown of culture and politics.”
Beatrice de Graaf: “Red, White, and Blood: White Terror and Great Fear, 1789-2021”
““White terror” has always been the twin brother of “revolutionary” or “red terror.” Modern history since the French Revolution has witnessed an effervescent parade of rebellions, insurrections, insurgencies, and proper coups – but they almost always came in pairs, as, for example, with revolutionary terror (against sitting feudal, authoritarian regimes) and white terror, counter-revolutionary violence,…
Daniel Herwitz: “Good ideals gone bad or bad ideals made good?”
“one wonders if freedom meant to them the freedom to take on the responsibility of creating an equitable and dignified society for all, or if in their heart of hearts freedom meant … freedom as a surge of power, power of self over others, power to command, power to become, to have things and control…
Murtaza Hussain: “The Far-Right Revolution Was Waiting for an Opportunity. Now, It’s Here.”
“Mutated through new information technologies and drawing strength from feelings of economic and demographic dislocation, fascist and sectarian ideologies have found a home in the hearts of members of a new generation of Americans. Whether most people have connected the dots or not, a violent struggle is already playing out. Over the past few years,…
Anonymous: “Between Looted Targets And Trillionaires: Solidarity With The Rebels In Minneapolis”
“The order of things is crushing us. Our jobs are disappearing, they’re paying us shit for throwing our lives into a charnel house, they’re murdering the unruly in the streets and stealing the lives of black people on camera for all the world to see. This is a world we must refuse because it never…
Jeremy Popkin: “Vive la révolution!”
“Must radical political change generate uncontainable violence? The French Revolution is both a cautionary and inspiring tale.”