Fanaticism Without Faith: The Internet and the French Revolution

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Good evening. This is
Radio Free Beszel.

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I am Alphonse. Tonight:
the Internet and

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the French Revolution. Many
social dysfunctions

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today are blamed on the
Internet - things like

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echo chambers, polarization,
fake news,

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conspiracy theories,
denial of science.

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And the reason for all
of this is often

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given to be the technology:
the Internet,

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social media, smartphones.
And I think there are

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excellent arguments to be
made for all of that.

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And yet it seems some of this
has happened before.

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I'm going to talk about the
analysis of a French

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historian, Augustin Cochin,
who died in 1916

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fighting for France in
World War I. You can

0:45
find some of his writings
in a book titled,

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Organizing the Revolution.
Cochin was

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opposed to the revolution,
to its democracy,

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and to its murderous terror,
but he argued that

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the cause of this was not
the psychology of the

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participants. It was not
even the circumstances.

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It was a particular form
of social organization,

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and it began decades before
the Revolution itself

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with the philosophical
societies. This was the

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time in the 18th century
of the Enlightenment,

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and men across France
formed societies

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for talking about the new
ideas - for talking

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about human reason, the rights
of man, democracy.

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And these societies, Cochin
said, went astray.

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Their discussion of ideas
became detached from

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the real world, and when
the Revolution happened

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men from these societies
ended up in positions of

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influence and they tried
to apply the ideas that

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they had had in conversation.
And the results,

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as Cochin sees it, were
catastrophic. The core

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problem with these societies,
Cochin says,

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is free thought.
Now free thought

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seems like a good thing.
Free thought,

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free speech - but free
from what? Cochin says

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that they were free from
attachments. Freedom,

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in effect, meant freedom
from reality, because

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the goal of the societies
was only to talk,

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not to act, not to do, but
just for men to talk

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and to achieve agreement.
But if their agreement

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is the assumed outcome, that
means that the test

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of success, the test of
truth, is not whether

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something corresponds to
reality, but whether the

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participants agree on it.
What the participants in

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the societies were searching
for was not truth

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but consensus and the approval
of their peers.

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And so the ideas they had
were ultimately reduced

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to mere words and forms,
and actual truth itself

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was cast aside. These societies
were egalitarian:

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every man was equal, every
man had a vote.

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That was the principle. But,
as usually happens,

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as I've talked about before
when I talk about

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hierarchy versus centralization,
that wasn't

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the outcome. A few members
were more passionate,

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more engaged, more involved
than anybody else. And

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often these were the men
who were least involved

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in the outside world. Because
if you're busy with

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your job, busy with your
family, then you don't

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have that much time to go
to a talk shop in the

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evenings. And these inner
circles that sprang up,

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a few members in each
society, would end up

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directing the society as
a whole. If the society

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was going to have a formal
meeting in the evening,

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the inner circles might
meet in the morning,

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and they would talk about
the issues to be

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discussed at the later
meeting of the whole.

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And they would come to their
conclusions, and then

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they would contact other
members of the society

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and pressure or persuade
them. So that then when

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the greater meeting happened
in the evening,

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there would be many members
who would be willing

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to stand up and attest to
the consensus that had

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already been agreed upon
by the inner circles.

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And when there was a vote,
the measure would pass.

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So in effect, the inner
circles were

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able to direct the
society as a whole

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without appearing
to: because for

4:13
other members there
they would see,

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There's so many other people
who already think

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this way. I guess that's
the general opinion.

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I should go along with
it. A further feature

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of the societies was that
it was a condition

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of membership that although
you had free thought

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and free discussion within
the society, outside

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you are expected to be bound by
the decisions of the society.

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So once the vote was taken,
that was the position

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that these men would express
in the outside world.

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So when the Revolution
happened, and many of

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the old structures and
the old hierarchies

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were torn down, it
was the societies,

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the men of the societies,
who stepped up

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and stepped into positions
of influence

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and the new chaotic systems
of government.

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Now the ideal of Revolutionary
France

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was that France would
be governed

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by the will of the people.
This is the idea of

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Rousseau. This is the ideal
of the Enlightenment.

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Direct democracy was the goal.
But how can the people rule,

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especially when they
don't actually have

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representatives? Because
revolutionary France

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did not have a parliament.
Well there were

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representatives in that
people were sent

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from the regions and from
towns to the center

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- and the societies engineered
that as well.

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They couldn't ensure that
they would be elected,

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that they would be voted
in when this process

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began, but what they could
do is ensure that

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others would not be chosen
by excluding them.

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They made rules about
this. They would say

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aristocrats should not
be eligible - but

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Jean here has demonstrated
that he is a true

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revolutionary so he should
be. And so they

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were able to get themselves
elected, Cochin

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says, by excluding the
competition and then

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making exemptions for themselves
on the basis of

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their virtue and their
revolutionary credentials.

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Now just as the inner
circles had been able

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to manage the ideas within
their societies,

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they came to be able to
do the same thing in

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France. Now France had
hundreds of societies,

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and they themselves formed
a hierarchy, and at

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the top was the Jacobin
society. And in effect

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they were able to launder
the ideas of the

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few to appear to be the
will of the majority.

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And the way it would
work was the same:

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the inner circles would
disseminate their

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ideas out to the individual
societies in

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the in the provinces
or the département,

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and then within those
societies the process

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would go to work. The
societies would vote,

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they would approve,
they would send

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back their message
to the center.

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The consequence was a
kind of control that

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appeared to go from the
edges to the center,

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but had in fact originated
at the center, gone

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out to the edges, and
then come back again

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with the authority of
the popular will. It

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appeared that the people
ruled; in fact the

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societies ruled. And just
as within individual

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societies themselves a
counterfeit public opinion

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came to appear to be the
majority opinion - and

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then it actually became
the majority opinion.

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And for those who were
recalcitrant - towns,

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for example, who didn't
want to go along with

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new consensus - they could
get sent letters

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saying you are the only
one who doesn't agree.

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And in one instance, Cochin
said, sixty towns

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were sent letters, each
told that it was the

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only one that didn't agree.
Which of course

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was not the case, but
then the individual

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or the town or the community
that feels that it is

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the lone outlier falls in
line with the majority.

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Now it's characteristic
of this form of

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organization, Cochin says,
that it's leaderless,

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it's anonymous. These
inner circles have

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influence but they don't
have authority.

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And their power comes from
their anonymity. If

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it was seen that a few men
were leading France,

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that would be the end of
them: but so long as

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they were able to operate
effectively in secret,

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so long as they were able
to launder their power

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through the will of the people,
they held power.

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It was by exposing and
identifying their opponents

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that their opponents could
be taken down. But as

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long as they themselves kept
anonymity they were

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safe. The people were the
marionettes - that was

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the word they would use -
and they were the wire

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pullers. And they talked
about the entire system

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as a machine - and an
efficient machine it

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was. Cochin says one of
the evidences that

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it was the machine that
was guiding France

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was abrupt reversals of
policy and direction.

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When the people rule there's
no need to protect

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them from themselves. There's
no need for freedom

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of speech when the people
speak. There's no

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need for freedom of the
press when the people

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own the press. There's no
need for people to be

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protected by the courts
when the people judge.

9:07
And so this regime could
be exceptionally

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oppressive because it appeared
to be so free.

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As the regime established
itself, at first

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people would go along
because they had

9:18
something to gain. They
had something to win

9:21
by conforming with the
consensus. They could

9:23
perhaps achieve a position
in the government.

9:25
Perhaps they could get work.
But as more and more

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people joined there were
fewer and fewer goodies

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to give out. And so in
order to get people

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to comply, the regime
had to shift from the

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carrot to the stick. Cochin
says the terror became

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more necessary when people
were more submissive.

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Public safety was a priority.
France did face

9:50
real threats. It was at
war with its neighbors.

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There was basically civil
war in many of

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the regions, and there
were foreign spies,

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and there was immense chaos
and violence and

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shortages. But the regime
didn't really have

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the muscle to force people
in many instances to

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do what it wanted. Instead
it used surveillance.

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Not surveillance by the regime
itself so much as

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mutual surveillance. When
edicts were made they

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were sent out to the people
in such a way that

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people would monitor their
neighbors to make

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sure their neighbors weren't
taking advantage,

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to put towns and people
into competition where

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they were eager to report
on one another and

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monitor one another and
call one another out

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in this atmosphere of fear of
threats of counter-revolution.

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Violence was seen
to be a good

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thing. One of the
leaders, Marat,

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said, "Don't lay down your
gun until all our

10:46
enemies are dead. This is
humanitarian advice."

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The result, Cochin says,
was a society of

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oppression - de facto
oppression, not de jure

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oppression. It wasn't the
laws in the government

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that forced people to do things
for the most part;

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it was the people forced
each other. The freedom

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of the Revolution, he says,
meant moral isolation.

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Quote: "The regime of
absolute freedom

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and equality . . . is
the most powerful

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one that can exist,
the most extensive,

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the most hierarchical,
the most stable,

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and the most demanding."
And the revolutionary

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man, the man who actually
managed things,

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Cochin says, was the
bureaucrat. He was

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free of attachments. He
was free of pride,

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dignity, intelligence,
independence - these things

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he did not need. And when
the revolution ended,

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and when some of the murderers
of the Terror were

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brought to court, they did
not stand up and say,

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"I did this because I
had principles. I did

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this because I believed
it was right." Instead

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they said something that
we heard in the 20th

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century: "I did it because
I acted under orders

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now." As I say, what
interests me most

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about this is not the
Revolution itself.

12:05
There are continuing debates
about whether the

12:07
Revolution was a good
thing or a bad thing,

12:09
even whether the Terror was
a good thing or a bad thing,

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and I don't particularly
want to get into that.

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What interests me is the
comparison to today.

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Like the hierarchy of
philosophical societies

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that existed in Revolutionary
France,

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societies where people
got together just to

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talk, not to do things,
disconnected from

12:30
their work-a-day lives -
just so, today we have

12:34
people who get together to
talk on social media.

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And just as then the
philosophical societies

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were not really tied to
activity in the world,

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today most social media
is not tied to activity

12:47
in the world, not tied to
productive activity,

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not tied to actual positions
of authority. And

12:54
so again inner circles have
tremendous influence.

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Sometimes as inner circles
are hidden, sometimes

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they're formal. They might
be cliques of editors

13:04
on Wikipedia. They might
be moderators

13:06
on reddit or some other
discussion forum.

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And they have tremendous
power to

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influence the direction
of those forums

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and the perception of what
majority opinion is.

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And ideas develop in these
systems that can

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be detached from reality,
and then emerge into

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politics in the outside world
- not through formal

13:28
routes but through the informal
social pressure of

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people who monitor the activity
and the beliefs of

13:34
other people and put pressure
on them to conform.

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Now, as then, these are
movements without leaders,

13:42
movements with influence
but not authority,

13:45
movements where the most
important people may

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be anonymous or almost
completely unknown.

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Now, as then, many of the
most active individuals

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are people who spend huge
amounts of time online

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and little in the outside
world. Now, as then,

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many of the most active
influential people

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online are much less
connected offline.

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And now, as then, the opinions
of minorities can

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be laundered through these
forums to appear to

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be the opinions of majorities,
or at least

14:18
of large groups or pluralities
of people.

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And while again there are
certain opportunities

14:26
to be had - positions to
be gained by adhering

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to the dogma, by adhering
to the party line -

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for most people it's fear
of being called out

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of being cancelled that
puts pressure on them

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to conform. Cochin's summary
of the character

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of the regime is striking.
He writes, "One does

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not generally imagine fanaticism
without faith,

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discipline without
loyalty,

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excommunication without
communion,

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opprobrium without strong
active convictions -

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no more than one imagines
a body without a soul."

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This is Alphonse for Radio
Free Beszel, www.beszel.ca.

15:11
Good night.