Excavations


... nothing is more essential to public interest than the preservation of public liberty.

- David Hume



Sunday, November 15, 2015

Harper's Anti-Communism Memorial

In his novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) Victor Hugo suggests that monumental architecture faded from European importance following Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press around 1440.[1]  The Gothic Cathedrals of the Middle Ages served a didactic purpose that was later supplanted by an endless supply of books: “the human intellect gave up architecture for printing.”[2]

We can take Hugo’s insight further: there is an inverse relationship between the availability of printed works and the rise of monumentalism.  Look to Hitler’s Germany where there was a lot of book burning – and a great number of monumental structures, designed by architect Albert Speer.  Look to today’s China, where there is a surfeit of architectural splendours along with considerable censorship.

In other words, it is a contradiction in cultural terms for Canadians to have a “monument” built to commemorate the victims of communism; the idea itself reveals the very ideological nature of the former Harper regime.  Rather than construct a monument (adjacent to the Supreme Court of Canada, making it a probable eyesore, as well) the money would be better spent to support Canadian political literacy, the CBC to name just one example.





[1] The classic 1939 film “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” with Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara begins with this very premise on the significance of the printing press.
[2] Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, tr. A.L.Alger (Mineola, New York: Dover), p.150.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

LA DÉCLARATION DES DROITS DE L’HOMME DE 1789

Les représentants du peuple français, constitués en Assemblée nationale, considérant que l’ignorance, l’oubli ou le mépris des Droits de l’homme sont les seules causes des malheurs publics et de la corruption des gouvernements, ont résolu d’exposé, dans une déclaration solennelle, les droits naturels, inaliénables et sacrés de l’homme; afin que cette déclaration, constamment présente à tous les membres du corps social, leur rappelle sans cesse leurs droits et leurs devoirs ; afin que les actes du pouvoir exécutif, pouvant être à chaque instant comparés avec le but de toute institution politique, en soient plus respectés ; afin que les réclamations des citoyens, fondées désormais sur des principes simples et incontestables, tournent toujours au maintien de la Constitution et au bonheur de tous.
     En conséquence, l’assemblée nationale reconnaît et déclare, en présence et sous les auspices de l’Etre Suprême, les droits suivants de l’homme et du citoyen.

     ARTICLE 1 – Les hommes naissent et demeurent libres et égaux en droits. Les distinctions sociales ne peuvent être fondées que sur l’utilité commune.[1]
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The Representatives of the French people, organized in National Assembly, considering that ignorance, forgetfulness, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole causes of public miseries and the corruption of governments, have resolved to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, inalienable, and sacred rights of man, so that this declaration, being ever present to all members of the social body, may unceasingly remind them of their rights and duties; in order that the acts of the legislative power and those of the executive power may at each moment be compared with the aim of every political institution and thereby may be more respected; and in order that the demands of the citizens, grounded upon simple and incontestable principles, may always take the direction of maintaining the constitution and welfare of all.

     In consequence, the National Assembly recognizes and declares, in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of man and citizen.

1.       Men are born free and remain equal in rights.  Social distinctions can be based only on public utility.[2]





[1] See for example Emile Faguet, Le Libéralisme, Paris: Société française d’imprimerie et de librairie, 1903.
[2] See “Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen” (August 26, 1789) in The French Revolution: A Document Collection. eds. Laura Mason and Tracey Rizzo (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1999), pp. 101-104.