From Dreyfus to Diab: Trial by Pattern

Perhaps a comparison of the Dreyfus Affair (1894-1906) with the case of Hassan Diab (2008-ongoing) is in order, given the lack of evidence in each instance.  Oddly, both now share a pre-occupation with “handwriting”; both see no need to look further than to a certain fixed ‘other’ (Alfred Dreyfus a Jew, Diab a Lebanese-born Arab, now Canadian citizen); both represent never-ending Trials for the individual and respective families; and, both are miscarriages of Justice by the French state – and in Diab’s case, by the Canadian state, as well. “E pur si muove” (as Galileo put it, at the end of his Trial).

Milton on Trump in Biden’s Inaugural Address – and the English Revolution

Thy country sought of thee, it sought unjustly,
Against the law of nature, law of nations,
No more thy country, but an impious crew
Of men conspiring to uphold their state
By worse than hostile deeds, violating the ends
For which our country is a name so dear
Not therefore to be obey’d.[1] 

Milton, Samson Agonistes (1671)

---

[1] John Milton, “Samson Agonistes” in John Milton: The Major Works, ed. Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 694 (889-895).

Updating King Louis XVI's 'flight to Varennes'

 

Will there be a flight from Mar-a-Lago (above) to Jerusalem?

On Trump's Second Impeachment: Montesquieu's "Considerations"

Modern translation, Chapter XXII:

It would be an error to believe that there has never existed anywhere in the world a human authority that is despotic in all its aspects … Even the greatest power is limited in some way.  If the Grand Seigneur … were to attempt to impose some new tax, the resulting outcry would be such as to make him observe the limits to which he had not known he was subject.  Although the King of Persia may be able to force a son to kill his father …, that same King cannot force his subjects to drink wine. Every nation is dominated by a general spirit, on which its very power is founded.  Anything undertaken in defiance of that spirit is a blow against that power, and as such must necessarily come to a stop.[1]

Older version (finished in 1876, following the American Civil War and published in 1882)

It is an error to suppose that there is any human in the world which is, in all respects, despotic.  There never was and there never will be such.  The most enormous power is always limited on some side.  Let the Grand Seigneur impose a novel tax upon Constantinople, and the general outcry will immediately disclose limits to his power which he had not known.  A king of Persia may indeed constrain a son to kill his father, or a father to kill his son; but to compel his subjects to drink wine would be beyond his power.  There is in every nation a general spirit upon which power itself is founded.  When it shocks this spirit, power disturbs its own foundation, and thus necessarily checks itself.[2] 

Original French (published in Amsterdam in 1734, without author's name)

C’est une erreur de croire qu’il y ait dans le monde une autorité humaine, A tous les égards despotique; il n’en a jamais eu, et il n’y en aura jamais. Le pouvoir le plus immense est toujours borné par quelque coin.  Que le Grand Seigneur mette un nouvel impôt à Constantinople, un cri général lui fait d’abord trouver des limites qu’il n’avait pas connues.  Un roi de Perse peut bien contraindre un fils de tuer son père ou un père de tuer son fils ; mais obliger ses sujets de boire du vin, il ne le peut pas.  Il y a, dans chaque nation, un esprit général sur lequel la puissance même est fondée.  Quand elle choque cet esprit, elle se choque elle-même, et elle s’arrête nécessairement.[3] 

---

[1] See the topic on “Despotism” in Vol. II of the Dictionary of the History of Ideas, ed. Philip P. Weiner (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1973), p. 9.

[2] Montesquieu, Considerations of the Causes of the Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans, tr. Jehu Baker (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1882 [Alpha Editions, 2019]), p. 460. Chapter XXII.  Jehu Baker was also a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, first as Republican, and later as Democrat.

[3] Montesquieu, Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des romains et de leur décadence, ed. Irena Montreal, 1873 [Bolton, ON: Amazon, nd], p. 151. Chapter XXII.

Trump finally goes native ...

 

The Reign of Terror - Trumped by Twitter

 

Photo credit: Doug Mills, The New York Times

‘A long train of abuses’ - Locke's key phrase in the history of political thought

John Locke, Two Treatises of Government (completed before Glorious Revolution of 1688/89)

Secondly, I answer, such Revolutions happen not upon every little mismanagement in publick affairs. Great mistakes in the ruling part, many wrong and inconvenient Laws, and all the slips of human frailty will be born by the people, without mutiny or murmur.  But if a long train of Abuses, Prevarications, and Artifices, all tending the same way, make the design visible to the People, and they cannot but feel, what they lie under, and see, whither they are going; ‘tis not to be wonder’d, that they should then rouze themselves, and endeavor to put the rule into such hands, which may secure to them the ends for which Government was at first erected; and without which, ancient Names, and specious Forms, are so far from  being all as great and as near, but the remedy farther off and more difficult[1]
 

The Declaration of Independence (In Congress, July 4, 1776)

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experiences hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.  But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. – Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.[2]

---

[1] John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, ed. Peter Laslett (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 415. Second Treatise, para. 225.

[2] National Archives: America’s Founding Documents (online source). 

The President as Pariah and the 'paranoid style' - the classic essay on America's Radical Right: another must read

 

Recommended Reading ...

                                                       Published Nov. 4, 2020
                                                       Oxford University Press

A Chapter for Trump’s Presidential Lie-brary: Isaiah 59

Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save,
nor his ears too dull to hear.
But your iniquities have separated
you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
so that he will not hear.
But your hands are stained with blood,
your finders with guilt
Your lips have spoken lies,
and your tongue mutters wicked things.
No one calls for justice;
no one pleads his case with integrity.
They rely on empty arguments and speak lies;
they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.
They hatch the egg of vipers
and spin a spider’s web
Whoever eats their eggs will die
and when one is broken, an adder is hatched.
Their cobwebs are useless for clothing;
they cannot cover themselves in what they make.
Their deeds are evil deeds,
and acts of violence are in their hands.
Their feet rush into sin;
they are swift to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are evil thoughts;
ruin and destruction mark their ways.
The way of peace they do not know;
there is no justice in their paths.
They have turned them into crooked roads;
no one who walks in them will know peace.

So justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not reach us.
We look for light, but all is darkness;
for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.
Like the blind we grope along the wall,
feeling our way like men without eyes.
At midday we stumble as if it were twilight;
among the strong, we are like the dead.
We all growl like bears;
we moan mournfully like doves.
We look for justice, but find none;
for deliverance, but it is far away.

For our offenses are many in your sight,
and our sins testify against us.
Our offenses are ever with us,
and we acknowledge our inequities:
rebellion and treachery against the LORD,
turning our backs on our God,
fomenting oppression and revolt,
uttering lies our hearts have conceived.
So justice is driven back,
and righteousness stands at a distance;
truth has stumbled in the streets,
honesty cannot enter.
Truth is nowhere to be found,
and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.

The LORD looked and was displeased
that there was no justice.
He saw that there was no one,
he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;
so his own arm worked salvation for him,
and his own righteousness sustained him.
He put on righteousness as his breastplate,
and the helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on the garments of vengeance
and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
According to what they have done,
so will he repay
wrath to his enemies
and retribution to his foes;
he will repay the islands their due.
From the west, men will hear the name of the LORD,
and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory.
For he will come like a pet-up flood
that the breath of the LORD drives along.

Source: The Bible (NIV) - Isaiah 59: 1-19, circa. 725 BC