The 1730 -1780 Watershed of France

To review: Enlightenment optimism gave way to something else. This something else became foundational to what society is today.

In the 1730s and 1740s the Enlightenment philosopher thought something like this: society is a ship which need not be powered by regiments of stupefied galley slaves, each beating an oar to the unifying cadence of superstitious authority. The ship might instead hang canvas, letting the winds of heaven drive it, and all rowers shall be freed.

But a heap of canvas does not make good sail. Supports of stout masts and strong lines and the industry of an organized crew all become vitally necessary. What would supply that intelligence and that energy?

The moral demands of Reason, however new and different, were as exacting as those of Christianity. We forget this if we look only at late effects of the enlightenment, but the thinker of the day was noticing the happy results of experimental science and sought to translate that progress to everything else. It was an unforgiving discipline and not for the halfhearted participant. The rules of the game quickly became serious, taught, and unforgiving - constraining, when one had expected liberation.

The great paradox of the period was this: Reason was indicating that men behaved irrationally if given the choice. A firm hand would be needed to deliver them from the oppression of the firm hand.