In case you were not disturbed enough by the last post...

[montagnarde1793]

....This is infinitely worse. I wasn't going to post it even, but.... Well, you'll see.

From a book called The Terrorist Trap: America's Experience with Terrorism, by a man who is up there with Fouché on the list of people I most despise: Jeffrey D. Simon. 

"The next significant period in the evolution of terrorism occurred in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Just as the medieval Ismailis extremists gave birth to the term "assassin," and the worshippers of the goddess Kali to the term "thug," so too did Maximilien Robespierre give birth in the eighteenth century to the very term "terror." [Gave birth, did he? He must really have had that sex change.] The Committee on Public Safety that ruled France during the turbulent years following the French Revolution [Following? O.o] was the first case of state-terror imposed upon a people. It was the forerunner of twentieth-century terror governments [Don't you just love how they announce, with no debate, with no suggestion that this isn't a cut-and-dried fact, that the Revolution was the "forerunner of twentieth-century" totalitarian regimes?] such as Stalin's Russia, Hitler's Germany, and Pol Pot's Cambodia. Robespierre unleashed his "Reign of Terror" [*sighs* This again? I don't think I need to repeat that the Terror was not unleashed by Maxime] between 1793 and 1794 upon all strata of French society [actually mostly the haute bourgeoisie, but considering this guy wouldn't know his haute bourgeoisie from his paysannerie, I can't really say I'm surprised]. For Robespierre, terror was viewed as the only way to save the revolution from anarchy at home and the threat from abroad by European monarchs [leaving aside the grammatical incorrectness of that sentence, why is it always what Maxime thought that's important? This isn't a bio of him!]. Even when these threats appeared to subside, he continued to use terrorism to stay in power and mold the people into a single will. [Did he now? That's odd, I don't recall. What's his source on this, Gueniffey? No, he probably can't read French. *sighs*]

 

More than seventeen thousand people [not quite]—peasants [in open rebellion in the provinces only], workers [a negligible amount], aristocrats [ditto], moderate revolutionaries [who wanted to see France carved up like Poland], and others [speculators and spies]—met their deaths by the guillotine. This became one of the first technological innovations in terrorist weaponry [And the electric chair is what, an innocent method of execution?] It was designed by Dr. Joseph Guillotin, [Actually, it wasn't] who actually viewed the sharp blade as a "humane" device [Maybe because it was? Perhaps the author of this book would prefer to be drawn and quartered or burned at the stake.] that made the deaths of the victims [condemned is the word] quicker and less painful than traditional methods of decapitation. [Which nobody got. Idiot.]

 

[I'm going to stop annotating from now on, but you'll see where it needs it, I'm sure.]

 

'The mechanism falls like lightning; the head flies off; the blood spurts; the man no longer exists,' Dr. Guillotin told the National Assembly in 1789 when he first proposed his invention. 'Gentlemen, with my machine, I'll take your head in a flash, and you won't even feel the slightest pain.' The guillotine, though, only served to facilitate Robespierre's efforts to eliminate all opponents to his rule. And it was not the only method used to kill people during the Reign of Terror. More than twenty-five thousand others were shot or killed by different methods throughout the country.

 

Terrorism, though, cannot be measured only by the number of casualties. Robespierre's rule created 'nervousness, apprehension, fear of secret denunciation [that] haunted thousands whom the guillotine did not touch.' More than on hundred thousand political prisoners were taken and several hundred others were declared suspects. [Okay, one more annotation: doesn't that prove our point—if less than 20% of those arrested were executed?] As with the Assassins, Robespierre did not view terrorism as an evil or immoral act, but instead thought of it as a virtuous deed. Virtue and terror were inseparable in Robespierre's thinking. 'If the basis of popular government in time of peace is virtue,' Robespierre argued, 'the basis of popular government in time of revolution is both virtue and terror: virtue without which terror is murderous, terror without which virtue is powerless.'

 

The terror included hauling victims onto old ships and sinking them in the Loire, sometimes killing the children of guillotined parents, and allowing thousands of prisoners to die of disease and famine. People lived in fear of the long reach of Robespierre since any seemingly innocent act could be viewed as treason. In one case, a man was sent to the guillotine for violating the Committee's [Convention's] laws on economic austerity since he was found with several small loaves of bread that had actually been baked for him on a doctor's orders. [I see no problem with that; a doctor can order anything. In this era especially, doctors weren't that helpful and so that's a pitiful excuse for bread-hoarding. Besides, this author obviously doesn't know what he's talking about, so I doubt it's even true.] In another case, the teenaged daughter of a painter was executed for having in her possession thousands of candles. [And I'm sure if this really happened Maxime was completely responsible. *rolls eyes*] Sometimes the grandparents and great-grandparents of prisoners would also be thrown in jail. [I only know of one incidence of this. Vadier and Amar did it deliberately to discredit Maxime.] People accused of being against the revolution or violating various laws and principles did not always receive a trial. [Yes. People like Maxime. Saint-Just. Couthon. Le Bas. Augustin. Hanriot. Etc.] 'No court sentence is needed,' one general told the National Convention. 'My saber and my pistols do their job.' [And generals are now supposed to give trials to guerilla fighters in a civil war? You learn something new every day.]

 

The French people even had to fear the way they looked in public, lest they arouse the suspicions of Robespierre's spies. [WHAT spies?] The government's agents "would join the conversation of men and women in public places like street corners or cafés and attempt, in this way, to net a potential suspicion. A depressed or unhappy look would attract attention and often prompt an inquiry into the identity and circumstances of anyone who had such a dissatisfied air.'

 

Robespierre himself fell victim to the guillotine in July 1794 as internal divisions within the government turned the terror machinery against the dictator [What dictator?] and his supporters. In his last speech to the National Convention, two days before he was to be executed, Robespierre attempted to justify his actions [What actions? Not going to the CSP?] as the will of the people:

 

'They call me a tyrant….One arrives at a tyrant's throne by the help of scoundrels….What faction do I belong to you? You yourselves. What is the faction which, since the Revolution began, has crushed the factions and swept away hireling traitors? It is you, it is the people, it is the principles of the Revolution….'

 

Robespierre, like the Assassins before, used highly publicized murders [WTF.] to spread fear to countless others whom he was trying to control."

...May I suggest the writing of nasty reviews? I think that's too good for it, personally, but it's the best that can be done at present.

Comments

[josiana.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes--and of course, he also had fangs and drank the blood of innocent aristo-babies. *headdesk*
It’s so hard to keep track of ebil!Maxime’s traits. ;-; He has so many of them.

You may have a point there--it would at least explain why the Revisionists keep making up words...
CONSPIRACY.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

We could always make a list to remember. XD

It's all a conspiracy. It is.

[josiana.livejournal.com]

But we could use the paper for something useful. Like writing pr0n. ;_;

As always. *curls into a ball and cries* D:

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

You're right, I suspect. That would be a much better use of so precious a resource.

Don't do that; you won't be able to use the paper you're not using to make lists of ebil!Maxime's traits to write pr0n!

[josiana.livejournal.com]

Especially if there are frenchboys involved. >3

Sorry. ;__; But I can't write pr0n anyway, so there's really no point.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Oh indeed.

But you could draw it. I know that much. Eh? :D

[josiana.livejournal.com]

*killed by zombie!Victor Hugo*

Er. You saw how badly I failed at that, right? ;___;

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

XD I'm sure he didn't mean it....

I saw the images. I do not share the conclusion.

[josiana.livejournal.com]

...;_; I'm sure he'd prefer if I stopped saying such disturbing things about his poor little characters.

...But. Enjy looked like a girl. A disturbed girl. And R looked like Jesus on crack. And the pose was horrible and probably anatomically incorrect.

But you're free to think otherwise, obviously. ^.^;;

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Probably, but where would the fun be in that?

You're too hard on yourself, really.

[josiana.livejournal.com]

I...don't know? Presumably, we'd all be writing brilliant analyzations of the character of Azelma. It might actually be good for our minds.

Not particularly. It could've been worse. D:

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

....Because I always find so much to analyze in characters who have two paragraphs written about them. -__-;

That's the spirit!

[josiana.livejournal.com]

Er. You could always make it up? That's what I do. And it shows.

No, I meant I could be more critical of the art. ^^;;

[(Anonymous)]

You analyze characters often, then?

*sighs*

[(Anonymous)]

You analyze characters often then?

*sighs*

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

So you analyze characters often then?

*sigh*

[josiana.livejournal.com]

Sometimes. ^^; Not very often anymore, because I've given up on writing.

...I'm sorry. ^^;

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Aw, what did you do that for?

[josiana.livejournal.com]

....Because I sucked at it. Remember? D:

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/35490097/?qo=31&q=by%3Aelvenmongoose&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps

That = Fail. Like everything else. ;___;

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

You exaggerate, really.

[josiana.livejournal.com]

No. :( But, again, you are free to think otherwise. ^^;

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

*sighs* If you say so.

[josiana.livejournal.com]

Er. Sorry. ^^;

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

*shrugs* It's all right.