Yesterday I finished a chapter in The Rebel by Albert Camus entitled The Regicides.  Camus writes to detail the theoretical underpinning of the Jacobin Reign of Terror.  All opponents of the uprising against Louis XVI, indeed those in favor of the idea of divine right of kings  — were lead to the scaffold, put under the knife.

Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just was a Jacobin leader and close friend of Maximilien Robespierre.  He was the face of the reign of terror and defended the use of force against opponents of the revolution.  St. Just was a true believer, a fanatic by any definition. He served as advisor and confidant to Robespierre.  St. Just personally supervised the arrest of some of the most famous victims of the Revolution and saw them off to the guillotine.

Saint-Just and Robespierre were arrested July 27 1794 in a bloody coup and lead to the guillotine, ending of the reign of terror.

While reading the story I thought of Trump campaign rallies.  For those who believe there is no definition possible of “failure” for their movement and its leader.

These short lines by Camus give a sense of those times.  The last lines are a quotation from Saint-Just.

Absolute good
and absolute evil,
if the necessary logic is applied,
both demand the same degree of passion.

When neither reason
nor the free expression of individual opinion
succeeds in systematically establishing unity,
it must be decided to suppress
all alien elements.
Thus the guillotine becomes a logician
whose function is refutation.

Even virtue unites with crime
in times of anarchy.

“All the stones are cut
to build the structure of freedom;
you can build a palace
or a tomb
from the same stones.”

Excerpt The Rebel, by Albert Camus p. 125-130