Georges-Jacques Danton on the Necessity for a Guilty Citizenry

Louis-Phillipe, nephew to King Louis XVI and eventual Crown head of France himself recounts a conversation with French Revolutionary leader Georges-Jacques Danton where Danton said to Louis-Phillipe;

“Do you know who gave the order for those September massacres you inveighed against and so violently and irresponsibly? … It was I… I did not want all those Parisian youths to arrive in Champagne until they were covered in blood which for us would be a guarantee of their loyalty: I want to place a river of blood between them and the emigres… We are not asking for your approval; all we are asking for you is silence instead of making yourself the echo of our enemies and yours.”

Warren H. Carroll
The Guillotine & The Cross — p. 46

There is a principle here that needs being into broad daylight. That principle is that wicked governments have a need to corrupt their citizenry so that the citizenry can not be in a place of moral superiority so as to condemn or overthrow the government. Because of this wicked governments do what Danton did. They insure that the citizenry is as guilty or more guilty of insufferable crimes than they themselves are. As such no voice of moral clarity is allowed to be raised and if it is raised it is almost immediately shut down by both the government and the citizenry since such a voice is a reproach to both.

This explains, in part, why abortion has been pushed. A guilty population will not hold a guilty government accountable. This explains, in part, why there is such sexual license that is legal and approved. A guilty population will not hold a guilty government accountable.

Wicked governments need a wicked citizenry in order to maintain power. As such wicked governments will always push a behavioral morality that will but the citizenry in the bondage of sin. People in bondage to sin will not be a people who sue for civil liberty.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him.

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