re: History: French Revolution

Worth noting that most of the original noblesse d’epee had died out by the late 1700’s. The Hundred Years War, the Wars of Religion, and the passage of time killed off most of those lines.

I agree

Over the last 200 years, and this is true all across the west, you’ve seen the old ruling classes fall from power, and the rise of a new ruling elite, drawn from the middle class.

The French Revolution was a middle class revolt against the nobility. And it’s not the best comparison to the States, because we’ve already seen that rollover in the ruling class, albeit through peaceful rather than violent means.

Our ruling class isn’t full of Washingtons, Jeffersons, or Lees. It’s people like Joe Biden.

I do like the Spanish comparison because the left dominated society in 1930s Spain in a way that feels familiar. In both cases the left controls the government, and the media.

I think the comparison breaks down when you look at the structural makeup of the right in this country. Because we don’t have the institutional strength the Spanish did. The church is weak here, and we don’t dominate the armed services. We also don’t have a conservative nobility itching for a fight, like they did.

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The central point of the warrior cast was for the ruling class to be the most virtuous of men, who were to live a life of poverty even though they held all the power.

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The meritocracy has a structural problem.

The kind of person who’s interested and willing to fight their way to the top, is more than likely quite selfish, and not particularly virtuous.

The system ends up selecting for the wrong kind of person.

This becomes a question of tradeoffs, but our system will always select for crooks.

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The kind of person who’s interested and willing to fight their way to the top, is more than likely quite selfish, and not particularly virtuous.

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I think Plato's point here was that mankind would never achieve or experience anything in its purest form. Man can contemplate the forms, but never actually know them, or achieve them. I thought it interesting that he held up Sparta as being closest to what Plato describes as a perfect society, but Sparta was so rigid that it kind of cracked up and turned to ashes and dust almost overnight.

You don't have to revolt.

This is America.

We voted the dictator out.