On Bastille Day

“When the people fear the government, you have tyranny. When the government fears the people, you have freedom.”

Bastille Day can not pass without remembering the role Thomas Paine had in the French revolution. From Part II of Thomas Paine’s series of essays The Rights of Man, Paine wrote this in 1792, three years after the storming of the Bastille marking the beginning of the French revolution.

Fear remains the tool of the despot, the terrorist, the tyrant, and the oppressor.

Resisting fear is at once difficult and the first step toward freedom, for individuals and societies alike.

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