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That said most people, i.e. the non revolutionaries (which is the HN crowd), survive and will survive just fine not knowing anything about revolution or revolut
by op03 6y ago
That said most people, i.e. the non revolutionaries (which is the HN crowd), survive and will survive just fine not knowing anything about revolution or revolutionaries.
My favourite example of such a survivor is Joseph Marie Jacquard inventor of the Jacquard Loom (that which inspired Charles Babbage). Jacquards town would be taken over by revolutionaries on one day, counter revolutionaries on another, local royalty on a third and Napoleans armies on a forth, to the point were the townsfolk had no clue on any given day, who they were fighting with or against.
Jacquard worked to a ripe old age, through all that chaos, seeding the creation of the computer and retiring to a nice beautiful cottage on a beach.
- ceilingcorner 6y agoThat strategy works until the power-of-the-day decides that your race/class/religion is the Enemy. Good luck being Jewish in 1940s Germany, or a Kulak in 1930s Soviet Union, or a Christian during the Cultural Revolution, etc.
- inglor_cz 6y agoYeah, young engineer Korolev was purged by Stalinist USSR for no good reason and while he survived the ordeal, his health was compromised. It is possible that his comparatively early death slowed Soviet space program down.
- op03 6y agoIn history you can find any story you want. Some guy says well Lavoisier lost his head. Well Legrange didn't. And here is a quote from him - "I believe that, in general, one of the first principles of every wise man is to conform strictly to the laws of the country in which he is living, even when they are unreasonable" He lived a pretty good life. Not everyone is a revolutionary (that should be obvious looking at what modern psychology tells us about human nature) Nor does everyone care about what revolutionaries care about (which should be obvious if you look at what marketing depts reveal about ppl). And if you are not interested in psychology or marketing, history will show you thousands of such people, famous people and ordinary people, survived comfortably and happily through every revolution and war and how to do it.
- pjc50 6y agoDidn't work out so well for Lavoisier.
- ImaCake 6y agoMaybe a more general lesson to learn here is that there are winners and losers in the great events of history. Mask manufacturers are certainly doing well from the current pandemic. Most Australians have only experienced about 2 months of lockdown. While Americans have got pretty much the worst possible pandemic outcome. In defense of the specifics of history. The french revolution was an incredibly pro-science revolution. Scientists who took advantage of the situation stood to become wealthy and be given the resources to do the science they wanted to.