Reflections on Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France-- The Reversion of Order

According to our friend Burke, the French Revolution aggressively tore apart all that was orderly in the humane society of France. In post-revolution France there was no chivalry and no respect for what differentiated human society from bestial society. In other words "all these pleasing illusions" i.e. chivalry and the ostentatious grandeur of politeness in the ranks of the upper class "harmonized the different shades of life" i.e. this chivalry made up for the majority of the population in lower class who were destitute of all of the luxuries of chivalry (Burke 45).  But no worries, the animal-like conditions of the public were not a problem because the grandness of the royalty was enough to throw a blanket over the ugliness that was the living conditions of the lower class. He saw society in the terms only of the upper class, he gave credence to the gentlemanly status, which in itself is not a problem, the problem with his ideas are that they disregard those that are not of the gentlemanly status.

Burke was a royalist and had a viewpoint that is not seen as acceptable today. This idea that all humans, no matter their economic position, their skin color, their gender, are equal. This was also one of the main ideas of the enlightenment: equality (along with liberty and equality). Burke sees this idea of equality as intangible, as an idea from the "men of theory". In Burke's opinion society cannot be based on these intangible ideas, such as equality. The post-revolution France will fall apart sooner or later because there is a void in the cohesiveness. There is no structural support to society without rank, nobility, and "entailed inheritance" ( this idea that monarch power is derived from the previous, through inheritance and God's will: and intertwining of church and state). (Burke 39).  (There is no longer a love for royalty or a consideration for anyone but one's self. I almost can empathize with what he is saying here because if there is an extreme individualization there is no sense of human kindred-ness anymore, but Burke has exaggerated this idea of individualization. It is  impossible to completely extract compassion from human life, it is in our nature and even if you do not believe that is in human capacity to have at least some care for another human being than it is in human's best interest to be a social creature. Anyway this idea that Burke brings of an inconsideration for others is greatly out of proportion, especially considering his general lack of consideration for the lower class.

If his highly unrelatable ideas weren't very present by the end of this excerpt, in one of the first paragraphs he already let a hint in about his obsolete ideas. He refers to Marie Antoinette "as all that is delicate and feminine, semi-divine and yet vulnerable, Woman as seen in the chivalric tradition calling upon men for protection." (Burke 34). Right away all sorts of bells were going off in my head, "delicate!?", "for protection!?"but I had forgotten the time period. This idea is more cohesive with the whole population,even the lower class. The irony in this is that the "equality" of the enlightenment movement did not account for women. Th equality extended to a specific group of people, to the male working lower-middle class. In this sense, the enlightenment maintained this order between males and females that Burke approves of.  Men are there to protect women from physical work and the ugliness of the world; it is a male's chivalrous duty to protect the innocent eyes of the woman. That is what the grandeur that royalties put on in the Palace of Versaille and the likes with all of its shining and luxury to protect woman like Marie Antoinette, but Burke looks over all of the woman in the lower class who are immersed in the this ugliness all of the time. So not only are they overlooked by the ruling class and then they are still overlooked by the revolters. But that is not something that many people, including Burke, of that time were concerned with. It is a modern idea to have concern for gender equality. But it goes along with this idea that Burke's writing was difficult to relate to because his ideas are so obsolete.