“Must radical political change generate uncontainable violence? The French Revolution is both a cautionary and inspiring tale.”
Category Archives: terror
Jeremy Popkin: “Vive la révolution!”
Posted in defeat, gender, governance, Nota Bene, revolution, rights, terror, tragic politics, violence
Tagged French Revolution, Haiti
Kylo V. Nèr: “Delenda est”
“There is no need to redeem the sins of the world in this way; there is nothing to redeem. There is no need to work for better days, to offer generations to come a haven purified of our turpitude, to make ourselves worthy of who has not yet come. There is nothing but to destroy. Let it be destroyed. Without hatred, but without hesitation. Without acrimony, but without trembling. Delenda est.”
Posted in emergency, Nota Bene, revolution, terror, violence
Alex von Tunzelmann: “The Evil Repercussions of the American Revolution”
A review of TO BEGIN THE WORLD OVER AGAIN: How the American Revolution Devastated the Globe (2019) by Matthew Lockwood. “He finds it at the root of a long list of ills, including increasing authoritarianism within Britain itself and the wider British Empire, the failure of Irish, Indian and Peruvian movements against imperialism, the Russian conquest of Crimea, the establishment of penal colonies in Australia and the growth of the global opium trade.”
Posted in Blog, defeat, hubris, melancholy, terror, tragic politics, tyranny
Tagged American Revolution
“Why the Turkish Invasion Matters”
“The invasion of Rojava is taking place against a global backdrop of intensifying nationalism, strife, and authoritarianism. We have to understand this as a single battle in a much larger conflict.”
Posted in governance, In The News, revolution, terror
Tagged Rojava
Jeffrey Ostler: “The Great Fear of 1776”
“It may be unsettling to consider the creation of the United States as a genocidal project, but the experiences of many of eastern North America’s Indigenous people led them to think of it in precisely this way. Examining their reasons does not necessarily mandate agreement with their conclusion, but it does ask us to take their fears more seriously than we have.”
Posted in founding, Nota Bene, revolution, terror, tyranny, violence
Tagged American Revolution, Indigenous people
Luis Hessel: “Women and a revolution betrayed: Nicaragua”
‘During the revolution we knew situations that we disapproved of, but we were not aware of the damage they would eventually cause by not correcting them in time. The “defence” of the Revolution, the early and fierce attack of the US, the economic and military blockade, the formation of the counterrevolution, the emotional commitment and the personal and collective cost that was necessary to pay to achieve Somoza’s departure, as well as many other factors, affected the lack of criticism or its limits of those who had already committed abuses since the beginning of the Revolution.’
Posted in anarchism, autonomy, governance, hubris, Nota Bene, revolution, terror, tragic politics
Tagged Nicaragua
Crimethinc: “Against the Logic of the Guillotine: Why the Paris Commune Burned the Guillotine—and we should too”
“Even when we are engaged in pitched physical struggle with our adversaries, we ought to maintain a profound faith in their potential, for we hope to live in different relations with them one day. As aspiring revolutionaries, this hope is our most precious resource, the foundation of everything we do. If revolutionary change is to spread throughout society and across the world, those we fight today will have to be fighting alongside us tomorrow.”
Posted in ethics, Nota Bene, revolution, terror, violence
Tagged Paris Commune
Samuel Farber: “The Russian Revolution Reconsidered”
“S. A. Smith’s book Russia in Revolution: An Empire in Crisis 1890-1928 … sets out to explain how the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, inspired by a radical democratic and egalitarian spirit, degenerated into the Stalinist totalitarian regime.”
Posted in governance, justice, Nota Bene, power, revolution, terror, tragic politics, tyranny
Tagged Russian Revolution
Alain Badiou interviewed: “We are at a new beginning of Marxist thought”
“We can only fall back on Lenin’s maxim: ‘Either revolution – I would say, communist politics – will prevent war, or war will provoke revolution.’ Let’s hope for the first alternative, but time is pressing…”
Posted in defeat, Nota Bene, power, revolution, terror, the Left, violence
Tagged Chinese Revolution, French Revolution
“50 Years later, Troubles still Cast ‘Huge Shadow’ over Northern Ireland”
The Irish Troubles (1968-98)
Posted in disobedience, freedom, governance, In The News, revolt, terror, violence
Tagged Irish Troubles
