French Revolution: Edmund Burke

The writings of Edmund Burke from his "Reflections on the Revolution in France" seemed somewhat controversial in my opinion. Burke showed his fundamentalist tendencies as he strongly opposed the revolution and was thus a strong supporter of "the monarchy, the aristocracy, the church, and the constitution that guaranteed their power" (47). Burke saw this revolution as a chaotic deviation from the institutions that were inherently best by tradition and inheritance. He firmly believed that a nation was most successful when it followed the guidelines formulated by its forefathers and never strayed from such ideals and practices. Burke often references the policies of England as a standard of what he deems successful.

                  Within Burke's Reflections, a bold reoccurring theme is the importance of inheritance. He believed inheritance to “furnish a sure principle of conservation, and a sure principle of transmission,” for in this way, a nation can “preserve [its] unity” and be most successful. Therefore, Burke implies that the policies and establishments set by a nation’s forefathers become that nation’s inheritance, making it the responsibility of that nation to preserve such invaluable information. As pertaining to governmental authority, Burke states that this also is an inheritable right, such that the crown should be handed down from father to son in an insured, traditional manner. He appeals to the emotion of his readers by relating these concepts of inheritance to those of “family settlements” (49), thus concealing the possible perils of what could exist in a monarchy. Burke even goes on to state on page 49, “a spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper, and confined views.” In this way, I believe Burke to be wrong. I think over the course of history many more good things have come from such a “spirit of innovation,” in comparison to the good things that have come from such a “unchangeable constancy” that Burke is so strongly campaigning for. (49)

                  Also in Burke’s Reflections he speaks of what he believes to be the “Real Rights of Men” on pages 50 and 51. He begins by stating men “have a right to the fruits of their industry; and to the means of making their industry fruitful” and “whatever each man can separately do, without trespassing upon others, he has a right to do for himself.” (50) In these statements, most everyone could agree. If a man works hard, he should rightfully be able to reap the benefits of his labor, as long as neither of these acts offends another man. However, in the rest of this section, Burke and I begin to have different opinions. He states “as to the share of power, authority, and direction which each individual ought to have in management of the state, that I must deny to be amongst the direct original rights of man in civil society” (51) In this quote, Burke goes back to support his preference of a monarchy as opposed to a democracy. As clearly made evident by Burke in his argument concerning the importance of inheritance, he believes that power and authority is strictly a blood right, and such privileges are far from being considered an “original” right of a common man.

                  Overall, I enjoyed disagreeing with Burke’s old-fashioned ideas J. And clearly, so did Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft as they went on to strongly disagree with Edmund Burke’s take on the rights of man. I do believe that Burke made convincing arguments that were very interesting and enticing to his readers. I also enjoyed seeing strongly contrasting ideas in general to the happenings of the French Revolution.