Duan Hongbin: The economic prosperity of the autocratic society has accelerated the arrival of the revolution

When reviewing the historical background of the outbreak of the French Revolution, Tocqueville also observed another "paradox": in the two decades before the Revolution, social wealth was increasing at an unprecedented rate, "the population was increasing, and wealth was growing faster. Public prosperity in any period after the Revolution did not develop as rapidly as in the 20 years before the Revolution." Especially when Tocqueville observed that although the French government on the eve of the revolution was still strong enough, it was no longer simply autocratic, but was "maintaining order everywhere"; The French people are "everyone can get rich at will, and can keep the wealth they have obtained". Although the French government had partially changed its role before the outbreak of the Great Revolution, and was committed to "promoting public prosperity, distributing relief funds and rewards, and implementing public works", it still retained many defects of authoritarian government. Tocqueville concluded: "How can a catastrophe be avoided? On the one hand, it is a nation, in which the desire to get rich is expanding every day and every hour; on the other hand, it is a government, which constantly stimulates this new enthusiasm, and constantly obstructs it, ignites it and extinguishes it, thus urging its own destruction from two aspects." [Full text of blog]

Blog World: Revolutions often break out in the "lightest place" for tyranny

Tocqueville found a "paradox" when studying the background of the French Revolution: the Revolution broke out in the place where people "felt the least about tyranny". Tocqueville explained this "paradox" in this way: "The revolution does not always happen because people's situation is getting worse and worse. The most common situation is that people who have always endured the most intolerable law without complaining as if nothing had happened will abandon it once the pressure of the law is reduced. The regime destroyed by the revolution is almost always better than the regime in front of it. Experience tells us that the most dangerous moment for a bad government is usually the moment when it begins to reform.
Some social psychological phenomena mentioned in this book are also very enlightening to the current reform. For example, he said that the scope of the old system was narrowed, but the hatred it aroused was even greater; Destroying some of the old systems will make the rest detestable. The enlightenment from this is not to start the reform, but to speed up the reform. Once the reform is initiated, everyone will be less patient with no reform. If we do not take the initiative to accelerate reform, we will be engulfed by fierce changes. [Full text of blog]

Fu Xian: The strangulation of the middle forces in the society makes the reform disorderly and brutal

Without the middle force, the people would fall into an atomized state, forcing each specific people to face the powerful autocratic state machine alone. In France, individuals have completely lost the ability to handle affairs, the habit of judging the situation and the experience of the people's movement, and have almost lost the concept of the people. Therefore, it is easy to imagine how all the French would suddenly fall into a terrible revolution that they simply cannot see, while those who are most threatened by the revolution are in the forefront, Open up and expand the road to revolution. The Great Revolution was initiated and controlled by various people who had no experience in political life, and its outcome can be imagined. What Tocqueville found most difficult to accept was that the leaders of the revolution were a group of "philosophers" who had no experience in real political life. The reason why the revolution was led by "philosophers" rather than by social activists was precisely because there was no middle force in the centralized French state, and social activists could not be produced. The contrast between the docile theory and the violent behavior is one of the strangest features of the French revolution. People will not be surprised if they notice that this revolution was prepared by the most educated class in the nation and carried out by the most uneducated and rude class. [Full text of blog]

Yu Deqing: In fact, the government taught the people all kinds of inappropriate ways to "carry out revolution"

Wang Yan: The public cannot participate in public affairs, and will eventually become more and more selfish

"In this (autocratic) society, people no longer have any contact with each other in terms of caste, class, guild, or family. They only focus on their own personal interests. They only think about themselves, huddle in a narrow individualism, and the public morality is completely suffocated. Instead of fighting against this tendency, the autocratic system makes it go smoothly; Because the autocratic system deprives citizens of all common feelings, all mutual needs, all the necessities of harmonious coexistence, and all the opportunities for common action, the autocratic system uses a wall to confine people in private life. "
"Only freedom can fight against the inherent ills of society in such a society, so that society will not slide down the slope. Because in public affairs, we must understand each other, persuade each other, and do good to others. Only freedom can make them get rid of money worship and daily personal troubles, make them realize and feel that the motherland is superior to everything at all times, and the motherland is close at hand. Only freedom can replace the addiction to happiness at any time with a stronger and more noble passion, so that people have a greater ambition than getting rich, and create knowledge, So that people can recognize and judge human good and evil. " [Full text of blog]

Gao Yi: Pursuing freedom is more important than pursuing equality

The pursuit of freedom and equality are the two ultimate goals of the French Revolution. The revolutionaries "want to establish not only a democratic system, but also a free system; not only to destroy various privileges, but also to recognize and sanctify various rights". Although the Declaration of Human Rights also juxtaposed "freedom" and "equality", Tocqueville was quite disappointed: "Of all the thoughts and feelings preparing for the Great Revolution, public freedom thoughts and hobbies in the strict sense were the last to emerge and the first to disappear."
The end of the French Revolution was clearly a mockery of the revolutionary model of "equality rather than freedom". Nationals as a whole have all nominal sovereign rights; However, the single citizen still has not got rid of the fate of being enslaved by the government. Finally, the Great Revolution ended, Napoleon's autocratic dictatorship fell from the sky, and the discouraged and exhausted French were also satisfied with "living equally under one master". Why did the French Revolution not adhere to "freedom" to the end? Tocqueville's understanding is that "the freedom that people usually love is actually only out of hatred for the master". So Tocqueville left a warning: "Whoever seeks something other than freedom itself in freedom is only worthy of slavery." [Full text of blog]

Han Zhu: Historical experience can be used for reference, and China and France are incomparable

China and France are two countries with totally different historical and cultural traditions, and their revolutions are also quite different. The current situation of China is far different from that of France. If we excessively use the old French system or the French Revolution to compare China's current situation or the Chinese revolution since modern times, we may not be able to accurately interpret the old French system and the French Revolution, nor can we enlighten China's reality. The biggest problem in China today is not the hierarchical system, but the growing corruption of officials and the disparity between rich and poor. The ruling party and government of China urgently need to solve the existing problems, but the whole society has not been divided into several distinct levels like France, and the political and economic forces have not been divided. In this case, the Chinese government has great space to form a positive interaction with the society. It is difficult for the French domino style aristocratic revolution, bourgeois revolution, urban citizen revolution and peasant revolution to take place in China. If we excessively compare the old French system to the reality of China today, or compare the French Revolution to the modern Chinese revolution, we may misread French history, separate from Chinese reality, and finally become a political fantasy. [Full text of blog]

Qin Qianhong: The enlightenment of the book "The Great Revolution" is that any reform attempt must adhere to the protection of freedom

"The Old System and the Great Revolution" is not without enlightenment to the current Chinese reality. China's future social change may have two paths, one is the realization path of the Great Revolution. There are two great revolutions in history, the Soviet Revolution and the French Revolution. All the Great Revolutions had a romantic vision. They wanted to change the world, even transform the human nature itself, and promote the revolution in the soul. But all the arrogance of rationalism and romantic motives would finally ring the death knell because of the anti human nature of the system and the unsustainable system. The other is the liberalism orientation of respecting tradition, inheriting tradition, inheriting the past and opening up the future with a sense of history, which may prevail in the development of strategic competitions.
I believe that the future development of China's constitutional government should make more efforts to strive for a free and dignified society. In China, the evolution of freedom, democracy and human rights is often sympathetic, with only intuitive experience and no rational consciousness. For the future development of China's legal system and constitutional government, if God gives us a favor and gives us everything we want, we will do it all. If God cannot give us this favor, we can only choose one of many reform structures, and the first is freedom of choice. [Full text of blog]