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The Original Leftists Happy Thursday! Tomorrow is Bastille Day. And with all the recent trouble in France, it’s interesting to revisit the beginning of communism. They’re not communists there, you say? Perhaps not. But one bright historian called the French Revolution the “Proto-Communist Revolution.” Didn’t Marx and Engels start it all? Nope. They just wrote those stupid ideas down. But thanks to this historian of fantastic ability and insight, we know that the French Revolution was nothing like the American Revolution: it was the beginning of the downfall of The West. Paris 2000 I stood at the top of the Eiffel Tower, marveling at the French fighter jets flying over the path of the Champs Elysees. It was July 14, 2000, and I had no idea I had booked my vacation on their holiday. Moreover, I didn’t realize it until I somehow managed to ascend to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I didn’t mail my mother flowers that year, so I thought a call would suffice. I grabbed my Nokia and dialed New Joisey, where my parents still lived. My mother answered the phone. “Happy Birthday, Mom!” “Thanks, Seanie!” We chatted and then I told her where I was. She heard the jet engines scream overhead. It was a nice moment. (Mom’s not much of a traveler, so she didn’t mind not being there.) I thought it a crazy coincidence that my mother’s birthday fell on Bastille Day. It wasn’t until I read about Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn that I thought it unfortunate. “The World’s Most Fascinating Man” You must be something special for an intellect like William F. Buckley to call you that. Buckley also called him “A Walking Book of Knowledge.” Kuehnelt-Leddihn had an encyclopedic knowledge of the humanities and was a polyglot. He was able to speak eight languages and read eleven others. Kuehnelt-Leddihn argued that majority rule in democracies is a threat to individual liberties. He declared himself a monarchist and an enemy of all forms of totalitarianism. However, he also supported what he defined as “non-democratic republics,” such as Switzerland and the early United States. He was unabashedly Catholic and Conservative. Moving to America after World War I, he taught at Georgetown University, Saint Peter’s College, Fordham University, and Chestnut Hill College. Kuehnelt-Leddihn resettled in his native Austria in 1947and devoted his time to alternating periods of studying, traveling, writing, and lecturing. He was a columnist for the National Review for 35 years. What he says about the French Revolution is shocking and refreshing. But First, The Original Leftists The first Leftists were a group of newly elected representatives to the National Constituent Assembly at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789. They were called “Leftists” simply because they sat on the left side of the French Assembly. Shockingly, the original Leftists wanted to abolish government controls over industry, trade, and the professions. They wanted wages, prices, and profits to be determined by competition in a free market. They stood for freeing their economy from central planning. Perhaps most surprisingly, they wanted to remove the government-guaranteed special privileges of guilds, unions, and associations whose members could set the price of their product above what it would be in a free market. Funnily enough, the Rightists wanted a highly centralized national government, special laws and privileges for unions and various other groups and classes, government-run economic monopolies in various necessities of life, and government controls over prices, production, and distribution. You know, like most of today’s Republicans. (Ouch…) The Leftists held power for two years with a small majority. To their great credit, they pushed most of their program through. But before they completed it, a violent minority from their own ranks — the revolutionary Jacobins — took over. Head Jacobin and downright evil bastard Maximilien Robespierre, the “spokesman for the people,” first said that the division of the powers of government was a good thing when it diminished the king’s authority. But when Robespierre became the leader, that power belonged to the people, and he chose to consolidate it… predictably. And so began the Reign of Terror. This is what led Kuehnelt-Leddihn to write:
Many Americans, fresh from creating their own country, were horrified by what happened in France. John Adams was chief among them. In a letter, he wrote to Benjamin Rush in 1811:
And for those who still cannot understand why “democracy” has no mention in the US Constitution, Adams wrote, “Napoleon and all his generals were but creatures of democracy.” Kuehnelt-Leddihn included these gems in his chapter on the French Revolution in his fabulous book Leftism.
It’s fascinating that the French celebrate this day, even though the Bastille was already condemned and ready to be sold by the government for a real estate project. Hilariously, when the “storming” actually happened, Kuehnelt-Leddihn writes:
Much ado about nothing, methinks. The French Revolution was the template, not for freedom reigning, but for totalitarian revolutions worldwide. It was a genuine disaster, which led Kuehnelt-Leddihn to write:
Keep that in mind when someone tries to compare July 4th to July 14th. They’re clearly misinformed. But with all that said…. “Happy Birthday, Mom!”
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