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The Origins Of Revolutionary Terror
American Thinker ^ | 1 May, 2026 | Lars Møller

Posted on 05/01/2026 6:52:19 AM PDT by MtnClimber

Revolutions announce themselves in the language of historical necessity and virtue, yet they are typically propelled by anything but noble motives. Among the most corrosive is envy—the intimate, humiliating awareness of another’s superior influence, charisma, or legitimacy. In the charged atmosphere of revolutionary upheaval, where institutions are weak and moral claims are absolute, such envy rarely appears in its naked form. Instead, it is transmuted into ideological accusation, recoded as vigilance, and ultimately enacted as persecution. The result is a recurrent pattern: “Like Saturn, the revolution devours its own children” (Jacques Mallet du Pan, 1793). This is due less to doctrinal disagreement than to personal rivalries that are moralized into existential threats. What appears as political necessity frequently conceals a psychological drama of insecurity, resentment, and fear.

The antagonism between Maximilien Robespierre and Georges Danton during the French Revolution offers a paradigmatic case. Their conflict is traditionally narrated as an ideological divergence over the legitimacy and duration of the Reign of Terror. Yet this account, while not false, is insufficient. It neglects the profound asymmetry in temperament and public reception between the two men—an asymmetry that rendered ideological disagreement inseparable from personal rivalry. Danton was a figure of warmth and vitality, a “sensuous” orator whose authority derived from an almost visceral connection with the masses. Robespierre, by contrast, cultivated a moral austerity that bordered on rigidity. His authority rested less on affection than on fear and an unyielding claim to virtue.

Such differences are not politically neutral. In a revolutionary context, where legitimacy is constantly renegotiated, charisma constitutes a rival form of power that cannot easily be institutionalized or controlled. Danton’s popularity exposed the limits of Robespierre’s authority, threatening to reduce his carefully constructed image of incorruptible virtue to a brittle façade. It is here that envy begins to operate

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: communism; crime; domesticenemies; insurgents; terrorism

1 posted on 05/01/2026 6:52:19 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

We are watching a globalist/communist revolution right now.


2 posted on 05/01/2026 6:52:42 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

.


3 posted on 05/01/2026 6:56:31 AM PDT by sauropod
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To: MtnClimber

“We are watching a globalist/communist revolution right now.”

It is well funded and most prople don’t understand that because the public education system is part of it.


4 posted on 05/01/2026 7:00:38 AM PDT by Dalberg-Acton
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To: MtnClimber

Bfl


5 posted on 05/01/2026 7:04:37 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: MtnClimber

The common revoluition is a french type, a revolution agains what you don’t want. And after you win, there is more you don’t want.

The American revolution was fought with a clear goal. We need to fight for a clear goal.

I REPEAT, WE NEED TO FIGHT FOR A CLEAR GOAL, not what we don’t want.

If I shake you awake in the middle of the night and ask you what you are fighting for, after you reach for your gun, what do you tell me?

George Washington could answer that question. Trump can. Can we?

MAGA


6 posted on 05/01/2026 7:12:17 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere)
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To: MtnClimber

The French revolution came about due to poor harvests and a bankrupt, tone deaf monarchy. The russian revolution succeeded due to the privatizations of war and urban famine.Ultimately the people suffered and came to regret the outcomes. Sadly this current war and entanglement in Iran is causing dismay and some economic hardship for many Americans. The historic result will be that the demonic, hate America Democrats will ride the backlash to power in 2026 and 2028. Then the American people and the American nation will suffer horribly. They will experience what the French and the Russians suffered in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.


7 posted on 05/01/2026 7:14:35 AM PDT by allendale
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To: MtnClimber

If I shake you awake in the middle of the night and ask you what you are fighting for, after you reach for your gun, what do you tell me?

Folks,

The above is the very definition of the “well regulated militia” referred to in the 2nd amendment.


8 posted on 05/01/2026 7:16:03 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere)
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To: MtnClimber

“What appears as political necessity frequently conceals a psychological drama of insecurity, resentment, and fear.”

Isnt that what politics is? At its core politics is all about protecting what you view as your self interest.

It’s why politics trumps everything.


9 posted on 05/01/2026 7:23:17 AM PDT by aquila48 (Do not let them make you "care" ! Guilting you is how they control you. )
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To: allendale

A good dose of the francophile Patrick Henry might shed some light.

Would you believe I was reading online a claim that it was was economic hardship that brought about the American Revolution?

Those Marxists get you coming and going.


10 posted on 05/01/2026 7:33:01 AM PDT by aspasia
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To: allendale
Sadly this current war and entanglement in Iran is causing dismay and some economic hardship for many Americans. The historic result will be that the demonic, hate America Democrats will ride the backlash to power in 2026 and 2028.

Interesting flow of "reasoning". You present evil on one hand and evil on the other and ask us to choose.

Should we accept a future with a radical who has encouraged our destruction and was on the brink of developing the means to do so?

Or do we submit to rule by a corrupted Dem party that is patently anti-MAGA?

11 posted on 05/01/2026 7:41:43 AM PDT by frog in a pot (Are they already inside the wire? See open borders and not paying TSA payroll during war.)
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To: MtnClimber

Why do I smell Hegel?


12 posted on 05/01/2026 7:50:25 AM PDT by aspasia
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To: MtnClimber
Federalist Papers No. 1.
Among the most formidable of the obstacles which the new Constitution will have to encounter may readily be distinguished the obvious interest of a certain class of men in every State to resist all changes which may hazard a diminution of the power, emolument, and consequence of the offices they hold under the State establishments; and the perverted ambition of another class of men, who will either hope to aggrandize themselves by the confusions of their country, or will flatter themselves with fairer prospects of elevation from the subdivision of the empire into several partial confederacies than from its union under one government ...

Ambition, avarice, personal animosity, party opposition, and many other motives not more laudable than these, are apt to operate as well upon those who support as those who oppose the right side of a question. Were there not even these inducements to moderation, nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties. For in politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.

--Publius (Alexander Hamilton)

Next: what is the origin or principle of unity?


13 posted on 05/01/2026 8:18:37 AM PDT by aspasia
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To: frog in a pot

There is little question that the mad mullahs palpably hate America for a variety of reasons, demonstrated the ability to build or acquire sophisticated drones and ballistic missiles and were an existential threat to Israel and to a somewhat lesser extent the United States. While the United States to date has dealt effectively with hostile nuclear armed powers, it would be far better to eliminate the mad mullah regime than tolerate it. In that sense it was appropriate for Trump, in alliance with a very competent, determined ally Israel to try to neutralize the threat. Military historians no doubt will argue if this war was adequately planned and if the US military had adequate resouces to accomplish the political goals.

My real point is that if this war ends with a “negotiated” settlement leaving the mullah regime, however weakened, in power and the enriched uranium not firmly secured, then history and more importantly the American people will view it, whatever the spin, as a costly failure. Then the political reality is that the demonic Democrats will ride the backlash to power and it will be the American people and the American nation that will suffer horribly. Now that he started this Trump has to forget about fancy state dinners with that dolt Charles and let his military and Israel do what is necessary to depose the mullah regime and secure the uranium. IMHO it is the only way to avoid an American political catastophre.


14 posted on 05/01/2026 8:34:18 AM PDT by allendale
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To: PeterPrinciple
a revolution against what you don't want.

That's an important point. They didn't have anything to replace it with. Napoleon was as kingly as any monarch, and the Third Republic struggled to fill the vacuum, either by finding a new identity in romantic primitivism or else a sterile positivism that for the sake of purity denied the problematic aspects of history.

So the article speaks to the psychology of human nature, although he didn't mention "human nature" but he didn't address the fundamental or root motive of that psychology which is the orientation to or away from God.

15 posted on 05/01/2026 8:42:31 AM PDT by aspasia
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To: MtnClimber

Luckily in revolutionary situations are uncommon.

Typically, the kind of terror we need to worry about is evolutionary terror. It is evolutionary terror which has destroyed Great Britain and it is evolutionary terror which has brought the U.S. near destruction as well.


16 posted on 05/01/2026 9:42:30 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica (The U.S. Constitution is not a suicide pact. Progressivism is a suicide pact.)
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To: aspasia

It is truly a wonderful contrast the French Revolution vs the American Revolution - that which was the triumph of man vs the other which was a triumph of God.

BTW in reference to the Federalist this is a wonderful way to consume those.

https://librivox.org/the-federalist-papers-by-alexander-hamilton-john-jay-and-james-madison-2

Production details:

Running Time:
23:40:43


17 posted on 05/01/2026 9:47:07 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica (The U.S. Constitution is not a suicide pact. Progressivism is a suicide pact.)
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To: All

Happy International Workers Day! Communism is great until you complain about starving and get lined up against the wall.


18 posted on 05/01/2026 10:30:19 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: allendale
Now that he started this Trump has to forget about fancy state dinners with that dolt Charles and let his military and Israel do what is necessary to depose the mullah regime and secure the uranium. IMHO it is the only way to avoid an American political catastophre.

On that we agree. Your original post suggested it was unlikely Trump was aware there is little or no need for negotiations with "unconditional surrender".

IMO, at the moment he is buying time and trying to minimize damage to the infrastructure while avoiding U.S. troops on the ground. Back in the old days, that was the purpose for UN peacekeepers.

19 posted on 05/02/2026 4:42:35 PM PDT by frog in a pot (Are they already inside the wire? See open borders and not paying TSA payroll during war.)
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