Unfortunately, Voltaire ideas had flaws as well. Freedom of speech was merely intended for those whose voice count, the middle class. Voltaire fought for the political and legislative rights that the aristocrats denied to the rising bourgeoisie. He wanted to change the laws that hinder the development and prosperity of the middle class. He was not interested in fighting poverty nor making laborers more deserving of social improvements or financial opportunities to flourish economically as well.
Some of his beliefs still excluded the right of Blacks and slaves as equal integrants of society, and some of the benefits of his reforms only could reach the lower class in France as the result of as a ripple effect in the long run. Poverty is not inevitable, as much as it is not either to be rich. Everyone should have the same opportunity to build similar financial security without the exploitation of the labor of others, and there is not need for any excessive wealth in a world of living disparities, hunger and diseases. Voltaire’s ideas did not provide any theory on how to make much smaller the social gap between the rich and the poor.
The assumption that the middle class would conform the link between the two extremes is not valid at all. History continues to prove it wrong time and time again. A government simply cannot give growing power to just the middle class, expecting that it will benefit equally all its constituents, specially when the lower stratus is always by far the larger which bears as well the least advantages. It is simply no enough to bring the poor to a higher level. It is for sure necessary to bring the rich to a lower level as well to make society more financially homogenous and fair. Voltaire did not have any insights nor theories about it.
Breaking from the monarchy and the absolutism that reigned in France previous centuries for certain allowed important social and economical changes that helped the nation develop into a more politically branched republic, but not without a difficult transition period of violence, terror, and the despicable bloodbath that followed. Radical middle-class extremists became the revolutionary leaders who used the financial anguish and social misery of the poor as the torch to drive their need for change and to push their disguised political agenda to seize power and to obliterate the aristocracy.
The situation of the poor did not improve much or none at all, if did not turn much worse living in constant fear and uncertainty. Luckily in the end, common sense and reason brought back some peace, calm, and somewhat reestablished social stability, although the country had been changed forever. The price paid to “better” society, just as Voltaire deemed necessary, was certainly a bloody one. The means used to attain them were not much different from the brutality, unfairness, oppression, and repression he despised and so relentlessly denounced.
Voltaire’s freedom of religion and religious tolerance ideas also were not completely beneficial. It is not deniable that all men should be free to choose in what to believe, whatever religion to follow, or whatever divinity to worship, but the freedom of socially practicing a religion also implies to allow the spread and reinforcement of obscurantism, superstition, and ignorance – maladies that as well lead to more intolerance and social clashes. Freedom of speech was merely intended for those whose voice count, the middle class.
Voltaire fought for the political and legislative rights that the aristocrats denied to the rising bourgeoisie. He wanted to change the laws that hinder the development and prosperity of the middle class. He was not interested in fighting poverty nor making laborers more deserving of social improvements or financial opportunities to flourish economically as well. Some of his beliefs still excluded the right of Blacks and slaves as equal integrants of society, and some of the benefits of his reforms only could reach the lower class in France as the result of as a ripple effect in the long run.
Poverty is not inevitable, as much as it is not either to be rich. Everyone should have the same opportunity to build similar financial security without the exploitation of the labor of others, and there is not need for any excessive wealth in a world of living disparities, hunger and diseases. Voltaire’s ideas did not provide any theory on how to make much smaller the social gap between the rich and the poor. The assumption that the middle class would conform the link between the two extremes is not valid at all.
History continues to prove it wrong time and time again. A government simply cannot give growing power to just the middle class, expecting that it will benefit equally all its constituents, specially when the lower stratus is always by far the larger which bears as well the least advantages. It is simply no enough to bring the poor to a higher level. It is for sure necessary to bring the rich to a lower level as well to make society more financially homogenous and fair. Voltaire did not have any insights nor theories about it.
Breaking from the monarchy and the absolutism that reigned in France previous centuries for certain allowed important social and economical changes that helped the nation develop into a more politically branched republic, but not without a difficult transition period of violence, terror, and the despicable bloodbath that followed. Radical middle-class extremists became the revolutionary leaders who used the financial anguish and social misery of the poor as the torch to drive their need for change and to push their disguised political agenda to seize power and to obliterate the aristocracy.
The situation of the poor did not improve much or none at all, if did not turn much worse living in constant fear and uncertainty. Luckily in the end, common sense and reason brought back some peace, calm, and somewhat reestablished social stability, although the country had been changed forever. The price paid to “better” society, just as Voltaire deemed necessary, was certainly a bloody one. The means used to attain them were not much different from the brutality, unfairness, oppression, and repression he despised and so relentlessly denounced.
Voltaire’s freedom of religion and religious tolerance ideas also were not completely beneficial. It is not deniable that all men should be free to choose in what to believe, whatever religion to follow, or whatever divinity to worship, but the freedom of socially practicing a religion also implies to allow the spread and reinforcement of obscurantism, superstition, and ignorance – maladies that as well lead to more intolerance and social clashes.