Comments on: Update II: The French Revolution Revived

By: George Pal

George Pal — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:49:35 +0000

By all means more Burke. How to pick a favorite quote? I’ll start basic, apropos the times.

“To love the little platoon we belong to in society is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections.”
– Edmund Burke

By: Dennis O'Keeffe

Dennis O'Keeffe — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:49:58 +0000

Burke is as remarkable in depth as he is in breadth. His critique of the Revolution in France is really the first embryonic study of totalitarianism, an extreme despotism of which in Burke’s day France was the only exemplar. He really belongs in the ascendancy of Orwell, Koestler, Camus, Popper, Kolakowski. Had the world really listened to Burke many of the horrors we witnessed in the twentieth century would simply not have occurred.

By: Myron Pauli

Myron Pauli — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:09:28 +0000

How’s this:

…”In denying their false claims of right, I do not mean to injure those which are real, and are such as their pretended rights would totally destroy. … Men have a right to live by that rule; they have a right to do justice, as between their fellows,…. They have a right to the fruits of their industry and to the means of making their industry fruitful. They have a right to the acquisitions of their parents, to the nourishment and improvement of their offspring, to instruction in life, and to consolation in death. Whatever each man can separately do, without trespassing upon others, he has a right to do for himself; and he has a right to a fair portion of all which society, with all its combinations of skill and force, can do in his favor. In this partnership ALL MEN HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS,
BUT NOT TO EQUAL THINGS. He that has but five shillings in the partnership has as good a right to it as he that has five hundred pounds has to his larger proportion. But he has not a right to an equal dividend in the product of the joint stock; …”

By: Bob Harrison

Bob Harrison — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:05:07 +0000

What makes leftists so dangerous is the notion that man has no nature and can therefor be programmed to fit the designs of Utopian states. If people do not accept fiat money, its because of some reactionary impulse that must be eliminated (in labor camps) not because there's anything wrong with worthless paper. The idea of VOLUNTARY exchange is completely alien to leftists, but its the basis of all successful economies. Even the most coercive state-capitalists (think China) rely on a (relatively) free economy as its basis, from which the state extracts much. Burke was truly a genius who understood the inescapable nature of man. Thank you for highlighting his work!

By: robert II

robert II — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:45:44 +0000

OOPS. I forgot to list a favorite quote!!

“Liberty without wisdom, and without virtue is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.” (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790.)

By: robert II

robert II — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:29:45 +0000

Ilana,
I am pleased to see you posting Burke. Peter Stanlis, author of “Burk and the Natural Law,” has an interview with University Bookman at the following link :www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/the-legacies-of-edmund-burke-and-robert-frost. Anything Peter Stanlis writes about Robert Frost or Edmund Burke is worth reading and considering. Dr. Stanlis would be inspired by your interest in Burke and your recognition of the differences between the French and American revolutions. I believe he founded and edited the Edmund Burk Review for some years and would no doubt be a reader of your blog if he was younger and more able to engage in such endeavors.