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Notes -
I’m thanking Enlightenment sociology for developments in democracy, especially consent of the governed and the idea of social contracts. Those are more valuable than pretty much any social or political theory from the subsequent centuries.
I think the bloody revolutions are what you get when you combine Enlightenment thought with a giant selection effect for violence. Rationalism and skepticism are really good at generating and propagating ideas. They’re pretty bad at getting people to kill for one. Dogmatism is much better at that. So by the time you can call it Revolution, most followers will have crystallized on the idea, rather than abstractly reasoned into it.
The Enlightenment provides fuel, but it’s awfully tricky to make fire without heat.
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