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Was France the Fatherland of Genocide?
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14164 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1988 |
2,252 Words |
| Author
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Laurent Ladouce
Laurent Ladouce is a lecturer at the Sorbonne who has written
widely on liberation theology. |
When Michel Baroin, the president of several insurance companies and a Freemason, was asked a few months ago to preside over the organization of the bicentenary of the French Revolution, many Frenchmen rejoiced: It was wise, so it was thought, to choose a man known for his moderation, his ecumenical ideas, his lifetime dedication to promoting dialogue and mutual understanding among ideological and political opponents. Baroin himself declared that he would make the bicentenary an occasion for national reconciliation.
After all, the spirit of the times seemed to favor this noble idea of a national reconciliation. In 1987, two years before the anniversary of its famous Revolution, France is celebrating the millennium of the crowning of Hugh Capet, the first "French" king and founder of a dynasty of French monarchs that was interrupted in January 1793 with the decapitation of King Louis XVI during the Revolution. Furthermore, the unusual "cohabitation" between a socialist president and a conservative prime minister seems to encourage dialogue and reconciliation. In 1988, the French will have to elect a new president, and this event will take place right between the millennium and the bicentenary celebrations.
For all these reasons, one may easily guess Baroin's satisfaction when he was appointed for this particular task. Sadly, however, destiny was not on his side: Baroin tragically disappeared in a plane accident a few weeks after he was chosen.
Had he survived, it remains doubtful that he would have achieved national reconciliation around the symbolism of the Revolution. Both intellectual and moral forces make such a reconciliation extremely problematic. If the Revolution is the source of French republican institutions, if it is seen to mark the frontier between the feudal age of injustice and inequality and the new era of social mobility and freedom, does that mean that we have to celebrate the entire French Revolution? Do we also have to celebrate the Reign of Terror, which bears at least some resemblance to modern totalitarian practices?
So, answered Edgard Faure, former president of the National Assembly and former minister of education, who was asked to succeed Baroin after his death. Faure's "wise suggestion" is that we should celebrate the French Revolution only in its first phase, between 1789 and 1792. But, some historians have pointed out, this is precisely the period when the king was still in power. In all honesty, can we celebrate the earliest phase of the Revolution as the founding event of the French
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