The Revolution You Get Won't Be the Revolution You Planned

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"The fears and suspicions engendered by the radical revolutionary ideas adumbrated during the Interregnum made suggestions for even the most modest and logical change anathema for a hundred years to come... Once again the result of the projects of the revolutionaries was the exact opposite of what they had intended... The preexisting élite became more deeply entrenched in property and power. Fear that any change might once more open the floodgate of revolution blocked reasonable reform to meet new conditions for over a century." -- Lawrence Stone, "Results of the English Revolutions," Three British Revolutions: 1641, 1688, 1776, p. 59 - 61

Comments

  1. Bob Murphy10:21 PM

    I don't trust anybody who uses "adumbrate."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Prateek3:58 AM

    The self-contradictory thing about a revolution is that it makes all politics impossible.

    Politics is obviously about reaching a peaceful compromise, rather than overthrowing an existing system.

    Revolutionaries, once they come to power, justify new revolutions against them, since others who don't share their views can simply do what they did - ignore politics and go straight for the uprising.

    Men like Robert Mugabe learnt this the hard way when his old guerrilla buddies became his biggest enemies.

    ReplyDelete

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