12 July 1789

Today is the 216th anniversary of an important date in the life of M.Camille Desmoulins (later editor and publisher of Vieux Cordelier).

The Wikipedia article on Camille Desmoulins states that:

The sudden dismissal of Jacques Necker by King Louis XVI was the event which brought Desmoulins to fame. On July 12, 1789 he leapt on a table outside one of the cafés in the garden of the Palais Royal, and announced to the crowd the dismissal of the reformer. Apparently losing his stammer due to the excitement, he addressed the passions of the public, calling "To arms!" and adding:

"This dismissal is the tocsin of the St. Bartholomew of the patriots" (meaning that a massacre of the partisans of reform was under preparation).

Finally, Desmoulins drew two pistols from under his coat, he declared that he would not fall alive into the hands of the police who were watching his movements. He descended embraced by the crowd.

This scene was the beginning of the actual events of the Revolution. Following Desmoulins, they started rioting throughout Paris, procuring arms by force, and, on July 13, it was partly organized as the Parisian militia - which was afterwards to be the National Guard. On July 14, the major event remembered as the storming of the Bastille occurred.

Although it tempting to believe that one man started the French Revolution, it is more understandable that people were ready and willing to act. All that was needed was a spark. That spark was M.Desmoulins and his street theatre.

But to get the people to that state of readiness was years of reading books and newspapers, thousands of meetings in clubs and cafes, and a growing realisation that the old ways were no longer working. Newspapers would spring almost daily and die just as quickly.

Today, we have blogs as well for millions of people around the world to discuss and argue about what is happening around us. Again, we have people wondering what is going on. Are they open to new ideas? Some are but most are not. Although they recognise that the world is in trouble, it seems somehow remote.

Today if I did the same thing as M.Desmoulins did 216 years ago, I would be laughed at. We are not in revolutionary times.