Reign* of Terror

When I lived in China, a lot of my teachers had survived the Cultural Revolution in their 20's (this was the 90's). When they would talk about it, which wasn't often, they told horrific stories. One of my teachers had been an English teacher when the revolution started. Because of that, she was sent to a "reeducation camp" in the far north of China where she was forced to work outside in fields all day. Her hands and face bore frostbite scars and she clearly had PTSD from the experience. She had just had her first daughter, and they forced her to carry the baby on her back while she worked. She would steal/barter for extra cloth (blankets, old clothes, whatever she could get) to keep the baby warm. So that the baby would have enough to eat, she would chew up her own food and spit it out to give to the baby. (the baby was fine by the way, and one of my good friends).

My other teacher was an older man who had to watch his entire family be killed off one by one because they were "counter revolutionary intellectuals."

The Cultural Revolution would be a great subject for this channel. And guys, don't even think "it can't happen here." It absolutely can happen anywhere. Get out and vote.

A dude enters a bookstore in Paris and asks if they have a copy of the French Constitution. The bookseller laughs and says, “I’m sorry, Monsieur, we don’t carry periodicals.”

French Citizens: “Robespierre has freed us from the King’s tyranny!”
Robespierre: “Oh, I wouldn’t say ‘freed’; more like ‘under new management’.”

One of the criticisms Robespierre and Saint-Just had against the monarchy was that the monarchy practiced capital punishment.
Ironic, then, their later actions.

Gotta love that no matter how bloody and awful a revolution may be, "historians" will always excuse it so long as its proponents were secular humanists and egalitarians.

As I REINED in my skittish horse during a sudden hard RAIN, in the lands where I REIGNED supreme, I realized life is everything.

I love how every single time people got enormous power their first act was to silence or murder the opposition. Nobody should be allowed to have that much power.

The revolution always devours its own.

Sources speculate that, given the almost constant executions (~ 40,000), the ground of the Place de la Revolution (now the Place de la Concorde) would have been literally soggy from the blood, not to mention the ever increasing odor, rather like an abandoned slaughterhouse.

Great episode!
[Edited for spelling error.]

'The Rein of Terror' is something every horse fears.🐎

If Simon hasn't done a video on Antoine "Father of Chemistry" Lavoisier, he should. For Lavoisier, the end of the Reign came two months too late. He was later exonerated. His widow Marie-Ann (who married him at 13) worked hard to make sure he received credit for his research and discoveries.

"Like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children."

Perhaps mentioned in the video but this is why we have the word, "Terrorist" in today's lexicon, it comes from the Reign of Terror.  Great content as always.

I love how Simon just recites all the strange name with no context. Thermidor, Prairial - these were months in the Republican calendar, an absolutely batshit kind of metric calendar with 10 day weeks and 10 hour days (but still 12 months?) that was widely mocked at the time and to this day. Oh, and the names were all based on things that happened at that time of year - 'thermidor' from 'thermon' ie heat, and the beautifully named Fructidor (no prizes for guessing that one) and my personal favourite, Ventose ('vent' = 'windy'), because February is fucken wimdy

They say: Just cause you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you!
In those cases it would be more accureate: just cause they're after you, doesn't mean you're not paranoid!

La Terreur inspired a contemporary political philosopher to coin the saying "Like Saturn, revolution devours it's own children"

It was true before and still is.

The founder of the school, where I teach for lived through all of this. Her father in hiding, constantly in worry over whether he would be found or her brother would be taken away... Because of this, and there are records of her throughout and afterwards based on her on accounts in diaries, she likely suffered anxiety,  depression brought on by PTSD.
She was an amazing woman despite her suffering and possibly that experience played a great part in her life as a teacher.❤
Thanks for sharing about this!

last time I was this early, France was a kingdom

Dancing in the Reign! 💃