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7 votes
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The world's newest major religion: No religion. As secularism grows, atheists and agnostics are trying to expand and diversify their ranks
19 votes -
If universities sacrifice philosophy on the altar of profit, what’s next?
7 votes -
Last Sassanids and the anti-Caliphate alliance with Tang
9 votes -
Christmas cards could prove valuable in time so don't be so quick to throw them out
5 votes -
Biblical city of Bethlehem boasts largest Christmas in years
4 votes -
Steven Pinker’s ideas are fatally flawed
14 votes -
Remarkable 120-year-old letter to Santa discovered in England
6 votes -
Two intricate calligraphy pages from the sixteenth-century manuscript “Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta” have been decoded for the first time
12 votes -
Model paves way for faster, more efficient translations of more languages
7 votes -
The Principle of Charity: on the Importance of Using Constructive Arguments
8 votes -
Ukraine announced the leader of a new national church on Saturday, marking an historic split from Russia which its leaders see as vital to the country’s security and independence.
8 votes -
Untouched 4,400-year-old tomb discovered at Saqqara, Egypt
22 votes -
Feliĉan zamenhofan tagon - Why Esperanto is an interesting language
8 votes -
Mystery blast sank the USS San Diego in 1918. New report reveals what happened
8 votes -
Explainer: the largest language spoken exclusively in Australia – Kriol
4 votes -
Economic Update: The Great American Purge
6 votes -
A brief history of US dirty wars in Central America that set the stage for the refugee crisis
4 votes -
North Sentinel Island: Uncontacted tribes’ ‘right to be left alone’ doesn’t gel with broader human rights
9 votes -
A sea story
4 votes -
Hey, that's our stuff: Masaai tribespeople tackle Oxford's Pitt Rivers museum
14 votes -
A Gale of Revolution in the Air
This is a speech that was delivered to the French National Assembly by Alexis de Tocqueville in January, 1848 - just a month before the outbreak of the 1848 "February Revolution." I find it to be...
This is a speech that was delivered to the French National Assembly by Alexis de Tocqueville in January, 1848 - just a month before the outbreak of the 1848 "February Revolution."
I find it to be remarkably prescient - even to this day - yet vastly underappreciated (at least from an American/English-speaking perspective).
I am told that there is no danger because there are no riots; I am told that, because there is no visible disorder on the surface of society, there is no revolution at hand.
Gentlemen, permit me to say that I believe you are mistaken. True, there is no actual disorder; but it has entered deeply into men's minds. See what is preparing itself amongst the working classes, who, I grant, are at present quiet. No doubt they are not disturbed by political passions, properly so called, to the same extent that they have been; but can you not see that their passions, instead of political, have become social? Do you not see that they are gradually forming opinions and ideas that are destined not only to upset this or that law, ministry, or even form of government, but society itself, until it totters upon the foundations on which it rests today? Do you not listen to what they say to themselves each day? Do you not hear them repeating unceasingly that all that is above them is incapable and unworthy of governing them; that the distribution of goods prevalent until now throughout the world is unjust; that property rests on a foundation that is not an equitable one? And do you not realize that when such opinions take root, when they spread in an almost universal manner, when they sink deeply into the masses, they are bound to bring with them sooner or later, I know not when or how, a most formidable revolution?
This, gentlemen, is my profound conviction: I believe that we are at this moment sleeping on a volcano. I am profoundly convinced of it.
I was saying just now that this evil would sooner or later, I know not how or whence it will come, bring with it a most serious revolution: be assured that that is so.-
When I come to investigate what, at different times, in different periods, among different peoples, has been the effective cause that has brought about the downfall of the governing classes, I perceive this or that event, man, or accidental or superficial cause; but, believe me, the real reason, the effective reason that causes men to lose political power is that they have become unworthy to retain it.
Think, gentlemen, of the old monarchy: it was stronger than you are, stronger in its origin; it was able to lean more than you do upon ancient customs, ancient habits, ancient beliefs; it was stronger than you are, and yet it has fallen to dust. And why did it fall? Do you think it was by the particular mischance? Do you think it was by the act some man, by the deficit, the oath in the tennis court, Lafayette, Mirabeau? No, gentlemen; there was another reason: the class that was then the governing class had become, through its indifference, its selfishness, and its vices, incapable and unworthy of governing the country.
That was the true reason.
Well, gentlemen, if it is right to have this patriotic prejudice at all times, how much more is it not right to have it in our own? Do you not feel, by some intuitive instinct that is not capable of analysis, but that is undeniable, that the earth is quaking once again in Europe? Do you not feel -- what shall I say? -- as it were a gale of revolution in the air? This gale, no one knows whence it springs, whence it blows, nor, believe me, whom it will carry with it; and it is in such times as these that you remain calm before the degradation of public morality -- for the expression is not too strong.
I speak here without bitterness; I am even addressing you without any party spirit; I am attacking men against whom I feel no vindictiveness. But I am obliged to communicate to my country my firm and profound conviction. Well, then, my firm and profound conviction is this: that public morality is being degraded, and that the degradation of public morality will shortly, very shortly perhaps, bring down upon you new revolutions. Is the life of kings held by stronger threads? And these more difficult to snap than those of other men? Can you say today that you are certain of tomorrow? Do you know what may happen in France a year hence, or even a month or a day hence? You do not know; but what you must know is that the tempest is looming on the horizon, that it is coming toward us. Will you allow it to take you by surprise?
Gentlemen, I implore you not to do so. I do not ask you, I implore you. I would gladly throw myself on my knees before you, so strongly do I believe in the reality and the seriousness of he danger, so convinced am I that my warnings are no empty rhetoric. Yes, the danger is great. Allay it while there is yet time; correct the evil by efficacious remedies, by attacking it not in its symptoms, but in itself.
Legislative changes have been spoken of. I am greatly disposed to think that these changes are not only very useful, but necessary; thus, I believe in the need of electoral reform, in the urgency of parliamentary reform; but I am not, gentlemen, so mad as not to know that no laws can affect the destinies of nations. No, it is not the mechanism of laws that produced great events, gentlemen, but the inner spirit of the government. Keep the laws as they are, if you wish. I think you would be very wrong to do so; but keep them. Keep the men, too, if it gives you any pleasure. I raise no objection so far as I am concerned. But, in God's name, change the spirit of the government; for, I repeat, that spirit will lead you to the abyss.
16 votes -
Major for-profit college chain abruptly announces closure of dozens of schools
12 votes -
The Roman triumph
12 votes -
The Confederacy was built on slavery. How can so many southern whites still believe otherwise?
20 votes -
How millennials are breathing fresh life into the ancient Irish language
9 votes -
What should America do with its empty church buildings?
13 votes -
Tens of thousands protest in India for controversial Hindu temple
6 votes -
How to learn a language: Input
8 votes -
Do you have a moral duty to leave Facebook?
31 votes -
What is Federal land?
15 votes -
Return of African artifacts sets a tricky precedent for Europe’s museums
5 votes -
What these two French words can teach us about social change
3 votes -
American exorcism
4 votes -
A new history for humanity – The Human Era
7 votes -
A 4,000-year old tale of trade and contraband
3 votes -
We thought the Incas couldn’t write. These knots change everything
8 votes -
Jonestown’s victims have a lesson to teach us, so I listened
10 votes -
Cultural activist from Guyana's Wapishana tribe tries to revive a near-extinct language
6 votes -
A toy monkey that escaped Nazi Germany and reunited a family
6 votes -
Who’s behind that beard? Historians are using facial recognition software to identify people in Civil War photographs
8 votes -
Rediscovering Ancient Greek music
7 votes -
Becoming Anne Frank - Why did we turn an isolated teenage girl into the world’s most famous Holocaust victim?
7 votes -
New research confirms substantial majority of Scottish people are not religious and not spiritual
19 votes -
Why are we still teaching reading the wrong way?
9 votes -
Bonfire of the humanities: The role of history in a society afflicted by short-termism
13 votes -
One hundred years on, the scars from World War I linger on Australia's streets and in our psyche.
6 votes -
Humanists going all the way: AHA to defend church-state separation at the Supreme Court
11 votes -
Pope vs. pope: How Francis and Benedict’s simmering conflict could split the Catholic Church
14 votes -
What's an arts degree really worth? $200,000, just for starters.
What's an arts degree really worth? $200,000, just for starters. And here's the study in question: The value of the humanities: A critical foundation of our society
8 votes