Captainpicou Said:Hi! Im Really Sorry If The Question Was Already Ask But Im Afraid That School Taught

captainpicou said:Hi! I’m really sorry if the question was already ask but I’m afraid that school taught me some shit about Robespierre. Thanks to your blog, I’ll read a bio about him but can you please tell me briefly why he is not the devil school tell me to hate ?

Unfortunately, dear citizen, school does not really teach you shit about Robespierre, even at university level.   This is where some exploration of your own comes in handy.  

Reasons not to hate on Robespierre: 

1.       An advocate for equality, Robespierre spoke for the rights of actors and Jews (frequently persecuted minority groups) and for the rights of all citizens, whether “active” or “passive,” to participate in government, regardless of socioeconomic status or property ownership:

“Are men equal in their rights, when some enjoy exclusively the right to stand for election as members of the legislative body or other public institutions, others simply the right to appoint them, and the rest are deprived of all these rights? No. Such, however, are the monstrous differences established between them by decrees that render a citizen active or passive; or half active or half passive, depending on the various degrees of fortune enabling an individual to pay three working days, or ten days of direct taxation, or a silver mark.  All these provisions are essentially anticonstitutional and antisocial.” –speech of April 1791

“Things have been said to you about the Jews that are infinitely exaggerated and often contrary to history.  How can the persecutions they have suffered at the hands of different peoples be held against them?  These on the contrary are national crimes that we ought to expiate, by granting them imprescriptible human rights of which no human power could despoil them.” –speech of 23 December 1789

2.       Robespierre denounced and promptly recalled the deputies-on-mission responsible for abuses of the Terror, such as the public drownings in Lyons.  I name these deputies: Collot d’Herbois, Joseph Fouche, Jean-Lambert Tallien, Jean Baptiste Carrier.

3.       Robespierre was one of TWELVE members of the Committee of Public Safety.  The Revolution was not the single-handed work of one man; it was a group effort heavily divided by political factions. Therefore, Robespierre did not Personally Guillotine Everyone; he signed comparatively few arrest warrants compared to his colleagues during the Terror and plus, an executioner was placed in charge of guillotining in the first place, the most famous of which was Charles Sanson.  

4.       Robespierre wished to save the life of Louis XVI’s sister, Madame Elisabeth, as well as the life of Camille Desmoulins, finding no evidence to prove him guilty despite his links to Danton.

5.       Although Robespierre advocated for the death of Louis XVI, his views on the death penalty continue to remain the same:

“I myself abhor the death penalty generously prescribed by your laws; and for Louis I feel neither love nor hate; I just hate his crimes…You are demanding an exception to the death penalty for the one individual who can justify it. Yes, the death penalty, in general, is a crime, and for the sole reason that, in keeping with the indestructible principles of nature, it can only be justified where it is necessary for the security of individuals or the social body.  Now public security never requires it for ordinary offenses, because society can always stop them by other means and make the culprit powerless to damage it.  But a dethroned king in the middle of a revolution which is nothing unless consolidated by the laws, a king whose name alone calls down the scourge of war on the disturbed nation: neither prison nor exile can render his existence harmless to the public good; and this cruel exception that justice allows to ordinary laws can be imputed only to the nature of his crimes.” –speech of 3 December 1792

As I state on my FAQ page, opinions and decisions made in the French Revolution must be examined in the context of that period. By viewing Robespierre through a lens of 21st century morality, one fails to understand why Robespierre justified the king’s death and the circumstances surrounding this justification: war, a nation in great debt, heavily divided political bodies. 

“Every particular problem must be thought about historically; it cannot be detached from its historic context in order to abstract from it certain ideal aspects for stranger and stranger extraneous ends.” -Albert Soboul, Understanding the French Revolution (p.272)

“It is through revolutionary struggles that the notions of the revolutionary state and dictatorship were clarified.  Action often precedes and furnishes the theoretical justification, which in turn strengthens the struggle.”   -Albert Soboul, Understanding the French Revolution (p. 65)

6.       Robespierre repudiated dechristianization.  Owing his education to the Catholic church and holding somewhat deist beliefs of his own, he in fact rejected atheism as “aristocratic” (much to my own chagrin) and equated forcing atheistic beliefs on priests and clergy members as terrible as forcing Christian beliefs upon non-believers. Essentially, Robespierre promoted religious tolerance.  

I understand you may question his participation in the Festival of the Supreme Being.  However, Robespierre used this as a political maneuver in order to draw patriotic support from the masses, as the Jacobins had directly allied themselves with the lower classes.

“Robespierre was by no means the worst character who figured in the French Revolution…He was not an atheist; on the contrary he publicly maintained the existence of a Supreme Being in opposition to many of his colleagues.  Neither was he of the opinion that is was necessary to exterminate all priests and nobles, like many others.  Marat, for example, maintained that it was necessary that six hundred thousand heads should fall.  Robespierre wanted to proclaim the king an outlaw and not go through with the ridiculous mockery of trying him…He was an enthusiast; but one who really believed he was acting right and died no worth a sous.”

–Napoleon Bonaparte

7.       Robespierre supported the proposal for a Committee of Clemency.

8.       Robespierre lived by his word that he never acted upon personal gain or ambition. This is evident in his modest way of living; after his death, his belongings sold for a grand total of only 300 livres.  

“Robespierre had been incorruptible in the midst of a host of men who readily yielded to the seductions of riches and power, and this is a very important trait in time of revolution…In all he said and did during those five troubled years of revolution, we feel even now, and his contemporaries must have felt it still more, that he was one of the very few politicians of that time who never wavered in their revolutionary faith, nor in their love for the democratic republic…” 

–Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin, The Great French Revolution

9.       Robespierre opposed the desire for declaring war in 1792, sacrificing several political alliances in the process.  He also opposed Brissot’s imperialistic suggestion of using the war to spread revolution abroad and therefore acquire the control of other nations.

“War, skillfully provoked and directed by a perfidious government, was the reef on which the liberty of many a free people has been wrecked.” 

–speech of December 1791 to the Jacobin Club

10.   No records show that Robespierre ever attended an execution; most sources also state that he drew the curtains in his apartment during the execution of Louis XVI.  Therefore, we can see that his call for the death penalty was one out of mere circumstance, not out of thirst for blood, and later for the centralization of government during the Terror in order to maintain the Revolution.  

“Long an ardent defender of freedom of speech and press and of the inviolability of the Assembly, he [Robespierre] had been led by his experience of war and counter-revolution to shed his old liberal ideas.” 

–George Rudé, Robespierre: Portrait of a Revolutionary Democrat (p. 36)

“In fact, there are few examples of an idealist so entirely free from sentimentalism as Robespierre. That such a man should suddenly have turned into a fanatical terrorist either for the purpose of establishing an Utopia, or - as one recent biographer claims - of making men conform to his idea of virtue, is almost too absurd to merit discussion.”

— Ralph Korngold, Robespierre and the Fourth Estate

“Through this court he soon found himself taking cases in opposition to LIborel.  It was in this court too that he later had to pronounce a death sentence for murder.  His sister Charlotte later recalled his agitation on the eve of the sentencing: ‘I know that he is guilty,’ Maximilien kept repeating.  ‘I know that he’s a scoundrel, but to have a man killed!” 

–Peter McPhee, Robespierre: A Revolutionary Life

11. Most of the excesses Robespierre is accused of stem from Thermidorian accounts specifically designed to slander him in order to cover up their own crimes - the Thermidorians (and general enemies of Robespierre) I speak of include individuals like Barras, Bertrand Barere, and Louis Freron: 

“The leaders of the Thermidorian revolution were the biggest rogues in the convention and the martyrs of that revolution were the purest and most irreproachable citizens among the nation’s representatives. Not only did Robespierre not wish for the Terrror to be prolonged, but he was sent to the scaffold because he wanted to end the Terror…Before Thermidor, Robespierre wished to attempt to save the Revolution and the Republic from the evil reputation and the ruin with which they were threatened by the monstrous crimes of the Terrorists of the Convention, men like Carrier, Collot d'Herbois, Tallien, Fouche, Freron, and other proconsuls whose…unmentionable cruelties had roused the indignation of France and of Europe.”

— Eugene Sue, Annales historiques de la Revolution francaise, no. 179

12. Robespierre fell ill during the last few weeks of his life when a lot of shit went down in the Convention and Committee of Public Safety.  Therefore, the actions taken during this time were not his own and Robespierre cannot be blamed for them.

“In the last seven weeks of the Terror, when that system had, as it were, passed into frenzy, Robespierre was regarded universally as its author and king…nothing could be easier and nothing would more satisfy the sense of the dramatic in history than to present him as the guilty conceiver of an enormous crime, and to make Thermidor the retribution.

Turn to the documents of these seven weeks and you will discover that he would not sign the lists of the condemned, that he protested against nearly all the more famous of the prosecutions, and that the body directly responsible for them, the Committee of Public Safety, regarded him as a danger; more, you will find that the spokesman of that body says that Robespierre perished ‘because he attempted to put a curb on the revolution’; and you will find that those who chiefly overthrew him were men determined to push the Terror to a further extreme.”

— Hilaire Belloc, Robespierre

“Was he [Robespierre] directly implicated in the bloodbath that Paris suffered [during the Great Terror] or was it unleashed to discredit him? The most likely answer is that, in his absence, his enemies were jumping at shadows, and he was the perfect scapegoat for their panic to kill as many suspects as possible.”

— Peter McPhee, Robespierre: A Revolutionary Life

“So long as the French Revolution is regarded, not as the ‘suicide of the 18th century’, but as the birth of ideas that enlightened the nineteenth, and of hopes that still inspire our own age; and so long as its leaders are sanely judged, with due allowance for the terrible difficulties of their task; so long will Robespierre, who lived and died for the Revolution, remain one of the great figures of history.”

— George Rudé, quoting J.M. Thompson in Robespierre: Portrait of a Revolutionary Democrat

“The old story of Robespierre as the man to blame is still accepted without question by most non-specialists.  It is unusual, though, for an expert on the French Revolution to still be making this kind of claim.  [Historian Donald] Sutherland’s perspective comes across as somewhat old-fashioned.  By loading the blame onto Robespierre, making him ‘take the rap for the Terror,’ we avoid looking at more profound reasons, more troubling reasons, why terror developed.  We can say it was all the fault of that unpleasant Robespierre - that Rousseauist, that paranoid man, that power-hungry dictator, that puritan obsessed with virtue - and forget that terror was in great part the consequence of a set of collective choices.  So much of the image of Robespierre as the man behind ‘the Terror’ is invention and myth, begun by men who wanted to divert attention from their own involvement in terror and elaborated, deepened, and reified over the years into layer upon layer of myth; even to the latest, ridiculous story of the ‘death mask’ and its supposedly scientific revelations.” 

–Dr. Marisa Linton in her latest contribution to the H-France forum

“As to Robespierre himself, he was never a dictator, and there is no reliable evidence to suggest that it was his aim…men called him a dictator because they feared his moral inflexibility in one who had power.  After they had destroyed him, they used the charge to justify what they had done.  It also enabled them to blame him for acts they themselves had helped to commit, but which became increasingly a subject for shame, recrimination, and revenge during the months of retreat from terror and ruthless government which now began.”

–William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution

“It is Robespierre’s enemies, the former Hebertistes, former Dantonistes who, after the fact, to justify their conduct of 9 Thermidor, tried to represent their victim under the caricature of a dictator using the idea of religion as a method of domination.  It is them who spoke first of Robespierre’s pontificate.  Will the Incorruptible thus always be judged on the testimony of his implacable enemies?” 

–Albert Mathiez

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alina’s out.

list of lgbt+ books with happy endings

(that don’t end with the couple splitting jfc) 

 please add to this post if you know any others too!

the dark wife by sarah diemer (tw: non-explicit rape)

all for the game trilogy by nora sakavic (tw: non explicit rape, violence, blood, drug use, death, and others)

the errant prince by sasha l. miller

aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe by benjamin alirez sáenz 

everything leads to you by nina lecour

boy meets boy by david levithan (tw: mild homophobia)

know not why by hannah johnson

carry on by rainbow rowell

one man guy by michael barakiva

simon vs. the homo sapiens agenda by becky albertalli

i’ll give you the sun by jandy nelson (tw: non explicit rape)

the darkest part of the forest by holly black

ash by malinda lo

My sexual preference is revolution.

Sanative Magazine’s 50 alternatives to self harm ordered by mood.

It is important in many peoples recovery journey to have a management plan when working through self harm. People can experience a wide variety of moods when the urge to self harm arises, although this list only deals with a few moods I hope that it is comprehensive and you will be able to understand that if you are feeling jealous you may like to try out the sad suggestions (if you are feeling particularly down), or the angry ones (if you are feeling particularly riled up and filled with frustrated energy).

It is good to have a few ideas that you would be willing to try in mind before the urge becomes too much to bare. Different emotional states often respond best to emotion specific responses, which is why lists like these can help. Keep any ideas that you are drawn to written down and try them next time you are feeling as if you want to self harm. These distraction and self soothing lists will be in constant revision as you find out what works for you (some things won’t work, and often nothing will work 100% of the time, but it is important to keep working at it.)

As with any mental health concern I recommend getting the assistance of a professional to work alongside you in this journey.

Here are a list of some distractions & self soothing ideas based on mood. Some of these activities could overlap into another mood, so don’t feel like they’re set in stone - use whatever you think would be helpful! SAD 1. Cry it out. 2. Watch a ridiculous comedy.  3. Take a warm shower 4. Listen to inspiring, upbeat music. 5. Spend time with a pet. 6. Organise your room 7. Phone a friend or even visit them 8. Read a trashy magazine 9. Make a list of quotes and lyrics that inspire you 10. Make a list of places you’d like to visit, or things you’d like to do within your lifetime. 11. Write how you’re feeling in a journal 12. Go for a long and peaceful walk 13. Bake or cook a favourite dish 14. Go to the movie theatre and watch the next movie that comes on (of course attempting to ensure that it will be trigger free) 15. Watch silly daytime television. 16. Play a video game or a board game. 17. Write letters to your best friends and send them if you wish to. 18. Start drawing, or a create a collage of how you’re feeling - don’t worry about how it looks, no one has to see it. 19. Cuddle a soft toy

ANXIOUS 20. Place a blanket in the dryer and wrap it around yourself 21. Make a cup of tea/coffee and attempt to focus mindfully on your actions whilst preparing and drinking the tea. 22. Look up and learn breathing techniques and mindfulness strategies, if you see a health professional try talking to them about these strategies and work out a plan of how to practice these techniques so that you’ll eventually be able to successfully use them when your urges seem unmanageable. 23. Run yourself a warm bath and fill it with aromatherapy oils. 24. Count by 9’s 25. Paint your nails 26. Colour in a mandala 27. If you are religious, pray or meditate. 28. Take photographs of something that catches your eye. Upload it somewhere like Instagram. 29. Collect a list of silly websites! For example 30. Look up funny cats and dogs on Youtube. Trust me. It’s endless and brilliant. 31. Fill in a CBT ABC worksheet or something similar. You can ask your therapist for something of the sort. Here is a good resource, it contains thought records as well. You can even draw up your own as these are arguably not the most aesthetically pleasing worksheets. http://www.psychologytools.org/download-therapy-worksheets.html 32. Watch a candle burn. 33. Fingerpaint ANGRY 34. Dance to ridiculous music 35. Scream out to music that expresses how you feel 36. Scream into a pillow 37. Punch a pile of pillows  38. Invest in a punching bag. Punch the absolute shit out of it. 39. Write a letter to someone you’re mad - swear at them, scream at them, get it ALL out, and and tear it up 40. Eat a lemon, sour loly, a chili - anything that will focus on your senses without hurting you. 41. Hold ice cubes in your hand, rub them under your knees, on the heels of your feet. 42. Watch a film that makes you laugh. 43. Take your dog for a walk 44. Wash the dishes 45. Go for a run/sprint 46. Write your thoughts on your body in red pen. 47. Hit soft toys/pillow against the wall repetitively. 48. Have a cold shower. With your clothes on if need be. If you get out of the shower and your urges/anger comes back, get in the shower again. ALL: 49. CALL A HELP LINE OR THERAPIST IF YOU ARE IN DANGER OR ARE FEELING UNSAFE LASTLY: 50. Remember that not every distraction will work and it is still important to consider why you are self harming to begin with. According to DBT therapy distractions are not a CURE for self harm, rather they are a technique to be used whilst the urges are too severe to work on. Aftere the urge has subsided it is important to SPEAK TO SOMEONE about how you are feeling. It is 34239534973657864% recommended that you find a health professional you trust to talk through these things with.

I repeat: NOT EVERY DISTRACTION WILL WORK. And those that do may not help every time. A slip up, or a 100, do not make you a “failure” of recovery. The fact that you are actively trying to get help and find other ways of coping is AMAZING. Try (and try and try) not to be hard on yourself!It is important in many peoples recovery journey to have a management plan when working through self harm. It is good to have a few ideas that you would be willing to try in mind before the urge becomes too much to bare. Keep these ideas written down and try them next time you are feeling as if you want to self harm. These distraction and self soothing lists will be in constant revision as you find out what works for you. As with any mental health concern I recommend getting the assistance of a professional to work alongside you in this journey.

Trying to draw buildings

Les Mis characterizations I want to see more in fics

Enjolras not as a button-down goodie-two-shoes teacher’s pet, but a kid on the verge of getting expelled because of his demonstrations who spends every day in detention for vandalism or insulting teachers (he started a revolution people, he’s not exactly a rule-follower)

Cosette not as the popular girl but as a loner who’s shy and kind of awkward and doesn’t quite know how to make friends because she spent her entire life in isolation, who people have no problem with but don’t really care about either

Eponine as a bit of the stereotypical Santana Lopez-esque bitch who occasionally does good things that confuse everyone (including herself) and she quickly makes a sarcastic remark to assure everyone that she’s still a bitch (because Eponine is my favourite sassy self-centred asshole who genuinely has a good heart, but she’s still a self-centred asshole most of the time)

Feuilly actually having characterization

Marius being a hardworking, intelligent, emotional, brave man who worked hard to get to where he was

Enjolras and Marius having mutual respect for each other like they did by the end of the brick (Enjolras pointed to him and said “that’s the leader follow him” for god’s sake)

I just needed to say that because fics are annoying me all the time