The Committees of Public Safety and General Security represented the progressive avant-garde of the French Revolution. It was their adoption of terror that first used the word ‘terrorist’ in the political agenda, and transformed the Revolution in the eyes of many outsiders from a liberating to now a destructive force. They had to find justifications for their violent killing, especially hanging. Which was the most problematic kind of violence because the most threatening to society. In the circumstances of public alarm and excitement, such killings could not be prevented, but couldn’t be allowed to appear random or just free
The Committees of Public Safety and General Security represented the progressive avant-garde of the French Revolution. It was their adoption of terror that first used the word ‘terrorist’ in the political agenda, and transformed the Revolution in the eyes of many outsiders from a liberating to now a destructive force. They had to find justifications for their violent killing, especially hanging. Which was the most problematic kind of violence because the most threatening to society. In the circumstances of public alarm and excitement, such killings could not be prevented, but couldn’t be allowed to appear random or just free