Chapter 268 surface of a problem

What constitutes a riot?There is nothing, and there is everything.The electricity released bit by bit, the flame that burns suddenly, the force that drifts, and the wind that flows.The wind meets the thinking mind, the vain thoughts, the tormented soul, the burning emotions, and the crying misery, and takes them all away. Where are you taking it? Aimless.Through the government, through the laws, through the pomp and excess of others. The irritated beliefs, bruised enthusiasm, instigated resentment, suppressed fighting spirit, the bravery of fanatical teenagers, rash and generous pride, curiosity, the habit of seeing different things, and the desire for new things make people love to watch a new movie. I like the mood of listening to the set crew blowing the whistle in the theater; all kinds of hidden hatred, old grudges, annoyance, all the whims of self-conceit; uneasy, far-fetched dreams, ambition trapped in a desperate situation; hope People who find their way out of the collapse; and the peat at the bottom, the kind of sludge that can catch fire, these are the ingredients of riots.

The greatest and the humblest, those who loiter outside of everything and watch for a chance, vagabonds, vagabonds, mobs at the crossroads, who sleep at night in desolate places where no one is inhabited, and whose roof is the cold cloud of the sky, Those who have never been willing to work and rely solely on begging for a living, the poor, the bare-handed, the bare-chested, and the mud-legged, are all attached to the riots. Whoever harbors a secret enmity in his soul for any matter of position, life, or destiny, is on the verge of a riot, and when a riot occurs he begins to tremble and feel himself drawn into the whirlpool.

A riot is a kind of tornado in the social atmosphere, formed suddenly under certain conditions of temperature, and rushes and chops in its whirling motion, throwing tall and thin, strong and weak, tree trunks and straw , Rolled up, flattened, crushed, destroyed, uprooted, wrapped away. Anyone who is wrapped up by it, whoever is touched by it, will suffer misfortune.It will destroy them in mutual conflict. It transmits a kind of extraordinary power to those it controls.It fills the first person it encounters with the power of the situation, and it uses all the sharp tools for projection.It turns pebbles into cannonballs and porters into generals.

Some insidious political authorities believe that, from the point of view of the regime, a little riot is welcome.Their theory is that insurrections that fail to overthrow the government can be used to consolidate the regime.The insurrection tests the military, unites the bourgeoisie, flexes the muscles of the police, and checks the strength of the social structure.It's gymnastics, almost a cleansing exercise.The regime will be stronger after riots, just as the human body will be more comfortable after massage. There was another view of the riots thirty years ago. A theory of everything that pretends to be "right thought," Ferlande against Alceste, an eclecticism between truth and fallacy, a mix of explanation, exhortation, condemnation and forgiveness , The golden mean that thinks it is superior to others and represents philosophy is often just a pedantic view.A whole set of political theories, the so-called doctrine of the golden mean, came out of it.In between cold water and hot water is warm water pie.This school, seemingly profound, is actually superficial. It only investigates the effects without asking the cause, and from a semi-scientific level it condemns the commotion in the public square.

This school says: "Those riots muddied the achievements of 1830, so that part of the purity of this great cause disappeared. The July Revolution was a good wind for the people, and after the good wind, there was immediately a clear God. But the insurrection clouded the sky again, and made the revolution, which was celebrated by the people unanimously, less in the strife. The July Revolution, like other advances made by surprise, caused many potential fractures. The riots touched these dark wounds. People could say, 'Ah! It's broken here.' After the July Revolution, people only felt saved, and after the riots, people felt only damaged.

"Every riot closes shops, depreciates securities, shrinks finances, slumps the market, suspends business, bankruptcies, cash shortages, loss of protection of private property, shakes the public's credit, disrupts businesses, withdraws capital, depreciates labor, and fluctuates everywhere. , spread to all cities. So dangerous. It has been calculated that the first riot cost France 20 million, the second 40 million, and the third 60 million. The three-day riot cost 120 million. , That is to say, only from the financial point of view, it is tantamount to suffering a flood or drought, or losing a battle, and a fleet of sixty warships is wiped out.

"Of course, in history, riots have their beauty. Compared with wars with paving stones and wars with branches and poles, the former is no less magnificent and tragic than the latter; on the one hand, there are forests The soul, on the other hand, the heart of the city; on the one hand, Jean-Juin, on the other, Joan of Arc. The riots illuminated the most characteristic parts of the Paris character in red and majestic: generosity, loyalty, optimism, boldness, The brave and wise college students, the unshakable National Guard, the camp of shop assistants, the fortress of waifs, the defiance of death by passers-by. Schools and regiments confront each other. In short, there are only age differences between soldiers, the same race, the same They are people who never return. Some died for their ideals at the age of twenty, and some died for their families at the age of forty. The army always has a heavy heart in a civil war, and it responds with prudence. The spirit of fearlessness also exercises the courage of the bourgeoisie.

"That's fine. But is it worth the blood for all this? And besides the blood, you have to think of the dimmed future, the disturbed progress, the restlessness of the best men, the honest liberals in disappointment , the foreign absolutism who was lucky to see the revolution itself hurt itself, those who were defeated in 1830 are now proud again, and they say: 'We said it before!' Plus:' Paris has grown, perhaps, but France has certainly shrunk.' And it must be added: 'Massacres (we should say this very well) have triumphantly suppressed the insane liberty and maintained law and order, but this bloody Law and order is not honorable.' In short, riots are a disaster for the country and the people."

The group of similarly intelligent people—the bourgeoisie—talked like this, and the group of similar people naturally felt satisfied. For our part, we reject the word "riot" which is too vague and therefore too convenient.We have to treat one popular movement differently from another.We are not asking whether an insurrection costs as much as a war.First, why are there wars?Here, a question of war is raised.Is the scourge of war not greater than the disaster of insurrection?Secondly, are all riots all disasters?So what if the 14th of July costs 120 million?It cost France two billion to place Philip V in Spain.Even if it cost the same, we'd rather spend it on the 14th of July.Also, we don't like to use these numbers. The numbers seem to be very telling, but in fact they are just empty words.Since we are going to talk about a riot, we have to analyze it in itself.In a dogmatic objection of the kind mentioned above, it is only the effect that is spoken of, and we are looking for the cause.

Let's get this straight.