Danton

Georges Danton (1759-1794) was a French revolutionary and a colleague of the notorious Robespierre, the man who instituted the infamous Reign of Terror. The stated purpose of the Reign of Terror was to snuff out (literally) all traitors to the revolution. But in the end, even Danton fell victim.

We like to make Polish jokes in this country but the truth is the Polish are as rabid about freedom as we are. They were the first to weaken and then break the communist yoke of Russia. Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda was run out of his homeland for making films deemed too disrespectful to the communist regime. It was during his stay in France he filmed Danton, a timeless essay on the pursuit of freedom.

The French Revolution was supposed to be about the people freeing themselves from the tyranny of an unjust monarch, but it failed. Why? Because in the final analysis it wasn't about freedom after all. There are two types of people who fight the tyrant: those who wish to bring freedom and those who seek to become the tyrant. It was the latter group that prevailed in the first French Revolution, causing the movement to implode.

"You will show my head to the people, it is worth seeing."
-Final words of Danton
It was on the orders of his onetime compatriot Robespierre that Danton was tried and executed. All politics are an extension of one's own life. Danton was a gregarious sort with a capacity to enjoy life. A man who grants himself freedom seeks it for others. Robespierre on the other hand was a self-serving asshole and implemented policies reflecting as much. So much for political principle.

These situations exist even to this day. The anti-war movement is a good example. There are some who join it because they don't want a family member killed, some who simply think war is wrong and some only against the war as long as we're losing it. Both the Iraqi and the French Revolution toppled unjust dicatators, but as history has shown us, the right thing done for the wrong reason inevitably ends up in disaster.