Article by my friend & brother in Messiah, Michael Deering...
I am fond of saying that History is a great teacher. Both history and human nature seem to follow a parallel tandem that tends to repeat itself over time or as Neo-Sociologists insist 'doesn't repeat - but often rhymes'. Most of the time this happens because people forget the lessons of history and human nature from generations that precede themselves. This needn't be the case given the volumes of history books, diaries and the Scriptures that give those of us currently living, warning about the lessons we should remember from the history and human nature suffered by our forbears. But the hubris of men and advancements in ideas, technology and society ignore such warnings because they wrongfully believe they are endowed with the ability to do things 'differently' because they wrongly think they are better. They willfully ignore human nature - the Achille's Heel of sociological optimism.
When looking around at the current states of societal affairs, bewilderment and confusion are the common reaction of a people accustomed to a former way of life. Such persons struggle to make sense of the current paradigms and zeitgeists that should instruct them plainly that their world has been already fundamentally transformed into something totally different. However, cognitive dissonance and Normalcy Bias prohibit their ability to recognize where their society has been taken.
This willful ignorance of where America and the West now find themselves is illustrated in the constant huzzahs and drumbeats about the election next year. All the vain and empty hopes I keep seeing regurgitated is frighteningly nauseating by a people that insist that we are going to somehow vote ourselves out of this authoritarian nightmare that has been imposed upon us. A brutal intolerant nightmare that is becoming more self-evident and in-our-face as each day passes.
While I am no lawyer or legal scholar, I am a student of the Constitution and America's Founding Documents. Since the indictment of former President Trump, I had been scanning the fate and outcomes of the thousands of Americans arrested and charged in connection to the January 6th 2021 protest that has been labeled an "insurrection" by those in power. The latest sentencing of former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio last Tuesday, and the statements from the Judge in the case caused shivers to literally run down my spine. In every case brought before the DC Courts - every single person charged, from militant Conservatives to grandmothers who wanted to protest what they felt was a stolen election, was handed a guilty verdict with maximum sentences. In each case, the jury convictions were unanimous and presented in record time. Almost as if the outcome was pre-determined. The standard of justice in these cases, and especially in Tarrio's was mind-bogglingly Soviet at best. The standard of proof levied of anti-constitutional intent was nothing more than hearsay and government-accusations to fit the political narrative that anyone not in support of the Biden Regime is dangerous to society.
Tarrio, who was not even at the Capitol on January 6th, was nevertheless sentenced to 22 years in prison with Terrorism enhancement for inciting "seditious conspiracy" based on nothing more than his public political views and absolute refusal to show remorse for those views in court and by steadfastly refusing to confess to the Judge his wrongthink. He was convicted on those views alone and will serve hard prison time for over 2 decades with no parole for simply exercising his 1st Amendment Rights. Contrast that to BLM and ANTIFA protestors who burnt down entire city blocks and actually killed people.
Because in America today - the current reality that few to none will admit to themselves, is that there is no such thing as freedom of political speech unless you are a Marxist. Any thought or idea that runs contrary to what the overlords in D.C. demand everyone show obeisance towards, is now an actionable crime. The evidence of this fact is in our faces with hundreds upon hundreds of convictions and plea deals that have eradicated our right to disagree with the state, or to call things what they are. I imagine sometime in the very near future, this very essay will be displayed in court as evidence of this author's need to be severely punishment by the state.
Because that is where all of this goes. The shiver down my spine was my recollection of an historical event that is virtually identical to what we are witnessing happen right now, this week, today.
I am speaking of the The Terror, the massive tyrannical bloodletting that engulfed France in the 1790's.
In 1794, the French Jacobins ramped up defense of their 'Republic of Virtue' by literally criminalizing anyone who thought differently than they did. They passed laws creating new categories of crime punishable by immediate death. Horrifying oppression suddenly and nearly overnight, engulfed the French people due to these laws that created a Revolutionary Tribunal to "punish the enemies of the people."
Passed on June 10, 1794, this law has been known to historians as the Law of 22 Prairial for the day and month of its passage according to the new Revolutionary calendar adopted by the National Convention as part of the fundamental transformation of France from a monarchy to a "democracy".
"Democracy, democracy democracy" was the constant word used to describe what France was transformed into - regardless of the fact France was never a Democracy in its charter to begin with.
Sound familiar?
Under the Law of 22 Prairial, every citizen was authorized to "seize all conspirators and counter-revolutionaries and to arraign them before the magistrates." Every citizen was required to denounce the guilty "as soon as he knows of them." The perfect political tool of oppression had been forged, and the people themselves would help to implement it.
Enemies of the people charged with 'sedition' were those whom were accused of seeking to disparage or work to dissolve the "National Convention and the revolutionary government of which is the center of all life in France." The Law of 22 Prairial was used to charge many French citizens with abusing the "principles of the Revolution or government laws and regulations by false and perfidious manipulations." This was a massive state effort to criminalize 'misinformation' or 'mal-information' in the public space. Do recall that the Biden Regime has implemented the same, and this is why you hear the State media constantly talk about 'misinformation' or 'mal-information'.
Traitors and enemies in 1794 France were those charged with 'deceiving the people "in order to lead them into undertakings contrary to the interests of liberty." Anyone could be charged with inspiring "discouragement or disseminated false news in order to divide or disturb the people," or "mislead public opinion or impaired the energy and purity of revolutionary and republican principles." Sound familiar? It should. This is essentially what Enrique Tarrio was convicted of.
Finally, in a catch-all roundup of all evil-minded malefactors in the French nation, everyone - all those who "by whatever means or by whatever appearances they assume" had made statements, efforts "against the liberty, unity, and security of the Republic, or who have labored to prevent the strengthening thereof" were declared enemies of the people, a crime punishable by death via guillotine.
The Law of 22 Prairial made it a certainty to convict anyone accused of any crime by anyone, especially those working in concert with the Revolutionary government. Proof could either be material or "moral", meaning the new morality being instituted by the new regime in France. Gone was the "old morality" replaced with the new political "morality". That meant that the French Revolutionary Courts considered views contrary to the new morality to be criminal. Suspicion, slander, or prejudiced opinion based on biases held by the political revolutionaries was evidence enough to convict. One simply had to make an accusation of a person's association with a declared enemy of the state or refusal to embrace the wokeness to the Revolutionary France zeitgeist, and conviction and death was virtually certain. The moment "proof" was offered, no witness was permitted to be called to testify in defense of anyone accused. Of interest to me was that if you read the court transcripts of many of the January 6th convictions - you will find similar conditions applied.
In fact, proof necessary for conviction and death in 1794 France need only "secure the approval of a just and reasonable mind." "Just and reasonable" was limited to someone who supported the Revolution. Judgment was deferred to the "conscience" of the jurors, who were required to be enlightened by love of country and dedicated to the triumph of the New Republic and the ruin of every single one its enemies, both real and perceived. This particular law, was the first lawfare of its kind and it instituted a heinous tyranny that still lives in infamy among those who remember history. The Terror was the mechanism adopted and applied in Stalin's Gulags, Hitler's Holocaust and Mao's Cultural Revolution.
Of course despite the appetites of France's Woke Aristocracy - they always ended up eating and killing their own. Maximilien de Robespierre, the main architect, Chief Jacobin and antagonist of pushing this terror, was himself accused, convicted and executed by the very mechanisms he erected.
Of sincere interest should be the fact that Karl Marx was inspired by this historical period. In fact 1790's Revolutionary France motivated Marx to create Communism as a political doctrine. Marx and Engels based much of their political philosophy upon this Terror and it's application upon a reluctant citizenry thus creating the idea of 'war of all against all' and the formation of constant struggle in order to perpetrate forever, the spirit of 'the revolution'.
So we are watching an historical parallel be employed today. The trials and sentencing of Americans for what happened on Jan. 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol are in direct conformity with the Law of 22 Prairial. Those accused by Democrats of making efforts against the "liberty, unity, and security" of a Progressive party government, or who had "labored to prevent the political strengthening" of such government, were found guilty by others who were chosen because of their conscience, "enlightened" by love of the Democrat party and "dedicated" to the triumph of the Democrat party over its enemies.
One of the early victims of the Jacobins was Marie-Jean 'Manon' Roland de la Platière, who was of the opposition party to the Jacobins. She was arrested outright at the onset of the 'purge' initiated by the Jacobin 'deep state' and imprisoned for 5 months before her execution for being an enemy of liberty. Her last words, spoken at the foot of the guillotine were: "O' Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!"
And so, America is repeating or 'rhyming' this infamous time with exclamations of 'Democracy' while charging those who exercise their first Amendment Right of political speech with "undermining American Democracy".
I imagine that soon, America's version of The Law of 22 Prairial, will be called : "Preserving Democracy From White Supremacy and Domestic Extremism". My only question is whether or not guillotines are in our near future. They were pictured prominently at the BLM and ANTIFA riots in 2020, so the thoughts are definitely in their minds.
Nothing new under the sun.
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