Odd fellow …

… Joseph de Maistre, revolution, and tradition – Catholic World Report.

Thomas Isham thinks Joseph de Maistre has real relevance for the 21st century. Maistre understood intuitively that the French Revolution was not an isolated historical catastrophe but the beginning of a “great epoch” that would endure for the foreseeable future. “In a word [he predicted], if there is no moral revolution in Europe, if the religious spirit is not reinforced in this part of the world, the social bond will dissolve,” with consequences of every sort that “will be felt far beyond the time of its explosion [in 1789], and the limits of its birthplace.” As Isham says, “Maistre saw it all coming:” more revolutions, more wars, more tyranny, and the murderous and nihilistic totalitarian state.

I read something by de Maistre many years ago, and have never forgotten what he said about Voltaire, that he “touched upon every subject without ever penetrating the surface of any.” Wonderfully bitchy.