Gah, reading everything you guys wrote and doing some individual research on my own, I started to find it sickening that my school dared to teach us such blatant propaganda. Worse thing is that the kids are soaking this right up - we recently had a debate on whether Robespierre was truly "incorruptible" and most in my class argued he was a corrupt (when there's no evidence? That's when I started to become suspicious), French version of Kim Jong-Il who tried to elevate himself to the position of a deity, citing that documentary above. And I thought WWII was bad...
My reaction to the Cult of Supreme Being is rather personal. I actually read parts of The Social Contract (via my teacher forcing me, but I ended up liking it); I personally disagreed with Rousseau about the idea of having a Civil Religion, but it was indeed explained very nicely. Of course, as I've stated earlier, it would not be fair of me to judge Rousseau or Robespierre from a 21st century, American point of view.
I'm sure I've become pretty annoying by now, but according to the documentary I've posted above, Robespierre apparently was on top of a paper mache mountain wearing a toga during the Festival of Supreme Being. Is there any truth to this? I'm asking because it seems like such an absurd and unreasonable thing to do for someone who wrote this: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/robespierre-supreme.html
Thanks for all the book recommendations, by the way. :) I'll be sure to check them out.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-03-27 10:55 pm (UTC)My reaction to the Cult of Supreme Being is rather personal. I actually read parts of The Social Contract (via my teacher forcing me, but I ended up liking it); I personally disagreed with Rousseau about the idea of having a Civil Religion, but it was indeed explained very nicely.
Of course, as I've stated earlier, it would not be fair of me to judge Rousseau or Robespierre from a 21st century, American point of view.
I'm sure I've become pretty annoying by now, but according to the documentary I've posted above, Robespierre apparently was on top of a paper mache mountain wearing a toga during the Festival of Supreme Being. Is there any truth to this? I'm asking because it seems like such an absurd and unreasonable thing to do for someone who wrote this: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/robespierre-supreme.html
Thanks for all the book recommendations, by the way. :) I'll be sure to check them out.