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Full Idea
There is no real break in continuity after a bloody struggle for regime change; for the victory just sanctions forces that before the struggle were the decisive factor in community life, patterns which were replacing those of the declining regime.
Gist of Idea
After a bloody revolution the group which already had the power comes to the fore
Source
Simone Weil (Reflections on Liberty and Social Oppression [1934], p.73)
Book Ref
Weil,Simone: 'Oppression and Liberty' [Routledge 1955], p.73
A Reaction
[from Marx] I assume she has in mind the French Revolution, and perhaps the Russian Revolution, though in the latter the new bourgeois leaders also got swept away. So revolutions are not nearly as dramatic as they appear to be.
Related Idea
Idea 23873 Dividing history books into separate chapters is disastrous [Weil]
| 23871 | No central authority can initiate decentralisation [Weil] |
| 23870 | Decentralisation is only possible by co-operation between strong and weak - which is absurd [Weil] |
| 23861 | Marx showed that capitalist oppression, because of competition, is unstoppable [Weil] |
| 23863 | Only individual people of good will can achieve social progress [Weil] |
| 23864 | Inequality could easily be mitigated, if it were not for the struggle for power [Weil] |
| 23865 | Morality would improve if people could pursue private interests [Weil] |
| 23866 | In oppressive societies the scope of actual control is extended by a religion of power [Weil] |
| 23867 | After a bloody revolution the group which already had the power comes to the fore [Weil] |
| 23868 | The pleasure of completing tasks motivates just as well as the whip of slavery [Weil] |
| 23869 | In the least evil societies people can think, control community life, and be autonomous [Weil] |