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Thursday, May 20, 2010

PACE CARLYLE

I'll sign up to fight Carlyle on the platform of the french revolution page by page when he attacks the king and the pope ... but what are they to me that I should enlist in their defense ... well the king might be a hedge to protect the people from the nobles the military money and the law ... and the church would defend the people against the king ... at least that's the ideal ... now right off the bat I'd say pascal had the right to criticize the jesuits but what right has carlyle ... pascal's thoughts go up to heaven and jesus ... how far up does carlyle's ... can he get past kant and hegel ... can he yet safely pass by the incipient public madness that in the century after his will repeat the atrocities of the french revolution and napoleon three five ten times again and again ... what right has nineteenth century western liberal culture to pontificate over the murdered remains of the ancient regime when itself nourished in its thought a set of assumptions and implications that killed the heart in the body and soul so many times over

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