Southern History Series: George Fitzhugh on the Morals of Free Society

I’m continuing to read and reflect on George Fitzhugh’s Sociology for the South, Or, The Failure of Free Society this afternoon.

“Liberty, Equality and Fraternity,” is the motto and watchword of Frenchmen when they turn out to murder each other wholesale. They are an epigramatic people, and have a happy way of condensing into a phrase or maxim, a whole code of philosophy. The same idea had been floating in men’s minds every since the Reformation.

“What oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed.”

Be on the lookout for the stupid slogans that simplify complex issues. Liberals have always expressed themselves in such a way.

Not sure what the meaning of this could be.

“It had borne, too, everywhere the same fruits. The seventy years war in Germany and further off in time and distance than the French Revolution, but were quite as prolific of murder, rape and rapine, as those amiable events themselves. They were the first exhibitions on a large scale, of the new philosophy of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the Vespers of St. Bartholemew, were small events compared to the days of the Guillotine; but nevertheless, they were highly respectable and intense expressions of that fraternity which nascent liberty was begetting.”

Some activism from the mostly peaceful protest outside of Jeff Bezos’s house in Washington, DC. It hasn’t exactly escalated to the level of The Terror yet, but clearly the idea is floating around the mob.

“The Gunpowder Plot, too, but for the unlucky contre temps, would have resulted in a very strong expression of the affectionate brotherly interest which men feel for one another’s well being, both in this world and the world to come. Shortly thereafter, when liberty openly reared her standard, and Cromwell burnt houses, and Sir Thomas Lunsford ate babies, men began to believe that the world was really blessed with the millennial advent of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Charles and Jeffries put a stop to it for a while: yet toward the latter part of his reign, Charles wisely resolved to give a holyday, and indulge his people with a bloody carnival. The little Titus Oates affair that followed, showed that men’s affections for each other had not at all abated, and were ready to exhibit themselves in the most passionate manner, whenever the restraints of government were removed.”

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) June 30, 2020