The French Revolution

Edmund Burke was not a believer in the French Revolution. I found it interesting how against the changes he was. He continually harped on the idea of tradition and preserving the "natural state" of things. On page 49 Burke states, "Thus, by preserving the method of nature in the conduct of the state, in what we improve, we are never wholly new; in what we retain, we are never wholly obsolete. By adhering in this manner and on those principles to our forefathers, we are guided not by the superstition of antiquarians, but by the spirit of philosophic analogy.". Burke is in favor of keeping with tradition and believes inheritance occurs in the family, so it therefore naturally should occur in the government. Although I do not think that Burke had a fully stable argument because he fails to discuss the view of the revolutionaries and the injustice that the monarch forced upon the less fortunate people, I was able to understand his reluctance to change. I think that it is human nature for people to be drawn to what they know. Personally, I am sometimes reluctant to change because it is hard to see what consequences that change may bring.
Burke's writings inspired many other writings, particularly those of Wollstonecraft and Paine. Both Wollstonecraft and Paine wrote rebuttals to Burke's ideas on the French Revolution arguing in favor of the Revolution. Of the two rebuttals, I especially was drawn to Paine and The Rights of Man. I enjoyed reading Paine because I thought he was straight forward and sometimes witty in his argument. Paine appealed to me from the initial paragraph. On page 65 he writes, "There never did, there never will, and there never can exist a Parliament, or any description of men, or any generation of men, in any country, possessed of the right or the power of binding and controlling posterity to the 'end of time'...Every generation is, and must be, competent to all the purposes which its occasions require. It is the living and not the dead that are to be accommodated.". With this quote, Paine argues that every generation should have the right to decide on what rules will govern them. It does not make sense for one man to be in power and to continue to rule once he has passed. This argument probably appealed to me because it is what we know. We live in an age where we are free to govern ourselves, and we are not ruled by one particular family. I cannot imagine having the strict social ladder that existed during the time and all of the injustice that accompanied that social ladder. Paine goes on to argue that it does not make sense for one person to own a group of people and that the Revolution was necessary to change this mindset. He states, " a general Revolution in the principle and construction of the Governments is necessary."