2 [Voice | Text]

[tables]

How can people be so idle when there is so much at stake at your inaction?

[It's quiet. The past jump has not been kind to Marius. In fact, he sounds positively unsettled, almost as if he needs to just go to sleep and not talk to the public at large, but he needs to do something and this is the only way he can make his heart less heavy.]

We are slaves here to the whim of individuals we cannot even see, to those we cannot even meet, and -- I cannot keep quiet about it any longer.

[He draws in a breath.]

I know there will be much discussion about why we are here and whether or not we can escape -- and I am interested in hearing all of that, but what I am more interested in is opinion. I want to hear what people feel about being here, be it anger or apathy, rather than the facts of our situation, for nothing has ever been changed with cruel numbers and statistics so much as heart.

[And he stills for a long moment before Marius shuts off the feed -- and, maybe twenty minutes later, he sends out a text.]

[Filtered Away from Enjolras]

What can be done about nightmares?

Comments

[text] Shit man I am so into this thread negl, can I just chinhands at your Marius please

[jurisimpudent]

Did you admire the French Revolution?

[text] IKR AAAH i love your edgeworth ;3;

[tables]

Many in France do.

I am what many consider to be a Bonapartist.

[text] /smooshes their idealistic faces against each other

[jurisimpudent]

So what did you think of what came after? What did you think of Robespierre and his leadership?

[text] creys

[tables]

The removal of the King from the throne and the subsequent Revolution was the shining light of hope for France. It was a country ruled by the People -- and Napoleon, when he took over, exemplified the ideals of our nation. Equality, liberty -- the legal system was completely reformed after he took power.

Unfortunately for France and for the movement, it was dismantled, and replaced with the same King that we once removed. The original Revolution of 1789 was a failure. This one was supposed to be different.

Obviously it was not.

[text]

[jurisimpudent]

But you're avoiding the topic - I don't speak of the king, but of the man who claimed to speak for the Revolution but claimed countless lives.

[text]

[tables]

[Hrgh.]

It is as Enjolras said.

The spirit, the belief, the faith of the Revolution -- it was implemented by the wrong man. Innocents died until Napoleon took control.

[text]

[jurisimpudent]

And innocents died after. You will not deny that Bonaparte was a warmonger.

[text]

[tables]

You also cannot deny that he unified a splintered France underneath one banner -- and ended the unnecessary bloodshed within our country to bring about a new age.

His dismissal from France sparked our current predicament.

[text]

[jurisimpudent]

No history book has called his France a utopia.

[text]

[tables]

Do you believe what you read so blindly?

[text]

[jurisimpudent]

Does that mean you claim it was? Do you claim that under his rule, no one starved? All men were equal, with none above any other? No one was killed through violence?

[text]

[tables]

A perfect utopia does not exist. It cannot, not as long as human nature is prevalent and strong in this world.

But the Revolution flourished underneath his command. People were fed -- wealth was distributed. We were not bloodily slaughtering one another in the streets because we could not afford bread.

Was it perfect, non, of course not. But Rome was not built in a day. It was a stepping stone toward a greater good that was ended as soon as the monarchy rose again.

[text]

[jurisimpudent]

Sir, poverty and hunger is systemic. One man didn't cause it; bloodshed can't solve it.

[text]

[tables]

Speaking out against the King ends in death. A man can be sent to prison for twenty years for stealing food to survive -- and there is no way to reverse the decision. People are enslaved every single day for petty crimes when murderers walk the streets.

One man has the power to stop it and make proper change, and he is not doing anything. He has the power to make a real shift in the social system. And he will not.

[text] I'M SORRY HE SAW ROBESPIERRE

[untamedantinous]

Robespierre's ideals were most admirable, as were those of the majority of the Jacobins. He simply implemented them in the wrong way.

[text] He has a google alert doesn't he

[jurisimpudent]

[Hello new debate partner how are you]

So what would have been the right way, sir?

[text] He would if he knew what that was

[untamedantinous]

[WHY HELLO FELLOW CRAVATTED GENTLEMAN.]

I do not disagree with the terror, it is what was needed at the time; there was no other way to move forward. However, moderation is what was lacking. I would rather Robespierre had listened to Danton and Desmoulins, perhaps, but that is not how it ended at the last.

[text] Oh Enjolras, let me show you the 21st century, we have so many more tools for fanboying

[jurisimpudent]

A moment, if I might ask that of you, to address an earlier point. How was the terror needed?

[text] Iiiii can show you the wooooorld

[untamedantinous]

Consider it from the viewpoint of the time. France was at war on all sides -- within herself and from outside -- Prussia, Austria, a good amount of the continent. We were desperate, and going to lose what we had so recently gained, a Republic shot down before it could barely begin to live. In order for it to thrive, those who dissented needed to be quieted. Royalists, spies, those who would turn the works of those great men into chaos and disorder.

I do not agree with the lengths it was taken to. But in theory, in moderation? Certainly.

[text] shiiining shimmering full of revoluuutions

[jurisimpudent]

All right: let me ask you something, in that case. When your King killed and imprisoned those who advocated for revolution, did you not spit upon his name and call him a tyrant?

[text] over sideways and under?

[untamedantinous]

Personally, I did not. I would have had I been alive, however.

[text] I'm out of song lyrics :(

[jurisimpudent]

Quite. So why was violent tyranny all right when you agreed with the tyrant's ideals, but not when you disagreed with them?

[text]

[untamedantinous]

Blood must be shed for the Republic to live.

[text]

[jurisimpudent]

Why?

[text]

[untamedantinous]

Monsieur, if peaceful methods had worked, there would have been no need for the barricades my brothers and I fought at.