French Revolution or American Revolution?

We’ve been here, before. I read an article about 1968 with some fascinating analysis. In 1968, we put men on the moon. In that time frame – 1968 – 1969 – the Hong Kong Flu was stomping around the world. In the US, 100,000 people died. Worldwide, several million people died. When you do the fourth grade math of population then vs. now, the infection rate and death rate was a lot higher than COVID, today. In that time frame, the Chicago riots and other civil unrest went extreme. Yep, add in the cool Space-X launch to the space station, a week ago, and 1968 was just like today.

The result of riots, flu epidemic, and Space coolness was that the ‘silent majority’ was offended by the insurrectionists and the past thirty years, Americans elected and reelected law and order Presidents. In other words, the pendulum swung far away from the insurrectionists as the ‘silent majority’ spoke loud and clear in voting booths. But that was peaceful and embraced the very best of the American Revolution in voting booths.

Let’s take this to additional analysis. Shelby Steele and Bob Woodson on Tucker Carlson’s show said that the current groups pressing insurrection, riots, and protests will fizzle because they have no clear, achievable, sustainable objectives. Both men were pillars in Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights movement and praised Dr. King for having clear, achievable objectives that all Americans could grasp and support… Not just the left and the African American community. In other words, Dr. King framed the Civil Rights movement with vision and achievement. Today, the ‘silent majority’ is offended by a press that talks of nothing else and basically sees the protests and riots devolving into early Christmas shopping as rioters burn businesses and houses to the ground.

There is a lot more I could discuss but it’s more important to look at history.

The French Revolution was a ten year agony from 5 May 1789 to 9 November 1799. The seeming high point was the storming of the Bastille and whacking off King Louis XVI’s head. Here’s the problem… Beyond those objectives, the insurrectionists had no clear goals or objectives. The chaos took France to starvation mode. Early on, the Jacobines disagreed, relied on emotion, and began killing each other. They ate their insurrection from the inside out. Even their supposed leader, Robespierre, got his head whacked off. The end of the French Revolution arrived when a guy named Napoleon fed them Grape Shot from cannons. He restored his flavor of ‘law and order.’ The French ‘silent majority,’ marginalized, starved, and offended by the Insurrectionists, leaped in and supported Napoleon with near fanaticism.

In other words, they ‘elected’ Napoleon with the same fervor Americans peacefully voted for law and order administrations from 1968 onward. Our process was peaceful whereas Napoleon’s process was not.

Here’s my fear – the emotion of current events, the false narratives on the fake news, and the near martyrdom of a career violent criminal over a fake $20 dollar bill have our nation in an uproar. Where’s David Dorn, the African American retired St Louis police Captain gunned down by ‘protesters? He’s far more worthy of martyrdom than a career violent criminal. Don’t get me wrong – what happened was repulsive and heart breaking but that policeman will never again breathe free air. As it should be. The problem in all this mess is that the American ‘Silent Majority’ is seemingly marginalized and suppressed as main stream fake news and company concalls really only chase down one narrative… In spite of the truth. As a result, only one narrative is being proclaimed. My fear is that when the pendulum swings away from our current insurrectionists, the swing will hurtle past the principles of the American Revolution into the violent residence of Alice in Wonderland and the style of the French Revolution. We’ll get a modern flavor of Napoleon who feeds them grape shot while the angry and marginalized ‘silent majority’ cheers.

There are seventy+ instances of ‘one to another’ in the New Testament. They frame so much of how people must be, one to another, in love and dialog. If the ‘offended’ and the ‘silent majority’ could ratchet down their rhetoric and actually talk, this thing would be over. We have a choice. American Revolution and the peaceful weapon of the voting booth or French Revolution and a modern Napoleon armed with Grape Shot.

Inman
Contemplating another beautiful Colorado Sunrise