The Freedom to Be Free

June 30, 2017 12:51 PM

Never-Before-Published Hannah Arendt on What Freedom and Revolution Really Mean.
posted by sapagan (3 comments total)

these streets and these buildings and these squares, all these are yours, your possessions, and hence your pride. This, or something of the same sort, happened for the first time during the French Revolution....And though many revolutions have ended in tyranny, it has also always been remembered that, in the words of Condorcet, “The word ‘revolutionary’ can be applied only to revolutions whose aim is freedom.”

The irony is that Condorcet died in the queens borough re-named "equality" borough two days after his arrest.
And no revolution was ever the result of conspiracies, secret societies, or openly revolutionary parties.
Well, the little known "Committee of Thirty", comprised of the elite who fostered if not pushed for change in 1788, wound up dead by 1794.

The world has been empty since the Romans, and is filled only with their memory, which is now our only prophecy of freedom,” exclaimed Saint Just.

Figures the impatient "Angel of Death" compared his limited knowledge base to "The Romans" totally dismissing the 1688 "revolution" which is ironic in itself.

Fascinating read, nice find sapagan.
posted by clavdivs at 2:14 PM on June 30, 2017

Oooh, I know what I'll be reading Sunday morning with my cup of coffee. Thanks.
posted by Fizz at 3:16 PM on June 30, 2017

Thankyou for posting this!
posted by harriet vane at 5:54 AM on July 2, 2017