Making sense of this crazy world

We should, in so many ways, see the French Revolution as the model for future revolutions. Last week, I talked about “letting the genie out of the bottle” and that’s what happened, and it proved so difficult to put the cork back into the bottle. So, what we’ll look at today is the way in which the bourgeoisie, at least temporarily, lost control of events. Just as so often. those that start things today lose control.

This episode looks at the meeting of the Estates-General that, it was hoped, would decide the future of France and it was here that the bourgeoisie seized control of events from both the King and the aristocracy, and demanded a constitution.

It has to be one of the greatest ironies of history that the revolution that would ultimately remove the heads of many an aristocrat was actually started by the aristocracy, and by their selfishness at that. And that's what we'll look at in this episode and you will see its links to issues we face today.

I’m still back in the world of books and clever people. And this week its Jean-Jaques Rousseau, the man who saw democracy as a contract. And a thinker that still has a big influence on our world today.

With the French Revolution, I really have to make another diversion and consider the influence of the philosophes. Not only did they have an influence on the revolution but they have a profound influence on our world today. So, I’m back in the world of books and clever people. And I begin with the work of one Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu.

We’ve looked at the English Revolution in the seventeenth and the American Revolution that rid itself forever of the English monarchy but replaced it with an oligarchy of the wealthy. So now I’m going to turn our attention to the French Revolution, the one that gave us Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité. Well, we’ll see about that.

This episode wraps up our look at the American constitution, so-called American democracy by looking at the ratification process and making a final assessment of just what had been achieved.

This episode will focus squarely on the American Constitution, a constitution that Americans at least, still seem to think is fit for purpose. I say this because there have only been 27 amendments with the first ten making up the Bill of Rights, so really, they were always part of the constitution, and the 21st amendment was repealing the 18th amendment (prohibition) so, in effect, there have only been 15 amendments.

I left things last week with the American colonies at war with Britain. But also, at war with themselves. And this is going to continue. And this episode will look at the America that was created out of the Revolution and I’m going to suggest that what was in fact created was an oligarchy.

In this episode, I’m turning my attention squarely on the American Revolution, the revolution against British rule, because it led to an independent American state and to the Constitution that largely still operates today. And I'm going to suggest that for the people of America, it was a decidedly limited revolution.