https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jan/19/what-the-french-revolution-can-teach-us-about-woke/What the French Revolution can teach us about 'woke' cultureRevolutions are draining and the assault on religion, landmarks and norms a short-term thingBy Gerard Leval - - Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver’s addition of “Awomen†after the somewhat more traditional term “Amen†at the end of his invocation at the opening session of the 117th Congress brought to mind a story that was told about a visitor to Paris in 1794.
Paris was then in the throes of the radical phase of the French Revolution. The monarchy had been overthrown, the monarchs beheaded and a new order was being installed. In the midst of all of this change, a visitor from the provinces unfamiliar with the streets of the city sought to find the address of a business located on one of Paris’ oldest thoroughfares, Rue St. Denis.
Without the aid of Google Maps or a GPS and believing himself lost in the maze of streets, the visitor was forced to turn to a passerby for assistance. When the visitor mentioned that he was seeking a location on Rue St. Denis, the passerby shook his head and indicated that no such street existed. He suggested that the visitor was undoubtedly looking for Rue Nis instead. Confused by this response, the visitor asked what had happened to the famous and bustling Rue St. Denis.
The passerby indicated that nothing had happened to the street, but that its name had been changed. He reminded the visitor that under the new revolutionary regime, the Catholic religion was no longer recognized and that the concept of “saints†had been abolished. Therefore, the term “saint†had been stricken wherever it appeared. He then added that all aristocratic privileges had also been abolished and the prefix “de†which denoted such a privilege could also no longer be used. As a consequence, the passerby, proudly pointing to the street sign above his head, indicated that the visitor was precisely where he wanted to be: on Rue Nis.
If he had wanted to emphasize the ongoing changes, the Parisian could also have pointed to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, by then reconsecrated as a “Temple of Reason,†and he could have noted that all of the statues on the facade were headless. The revolutionaries had wanted to purge the Parisian scene of any remnants of royalty.
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