But, you say, the Social Democrats want bloody revolution, illegal
overthrow of the existing order, and general chaos. Now I say simply, that
is not true. Many people have a horror of every revolution, because the
French Revolution and the revolutionary movements which followed it were
of
a bloody nature. Yet the Reformation of the sixteenth century was even
bloodier; why then do we not hate the Reformation? Because it, at least to
some extent, brought religious freedom? Why then do we hate the
revolutions
of the eighteenth century? Is it because they helped people toward
political freedom? The latter seem to me indispensable to the former. The
bloodshed of the Reformation pains me just as much as the bloodshed of the
Revolution; but I must take both in the bargain and in both see progress
toward the freedom of humanity. Why don’t we have a general horror of the
bloodletting of times both past and present instead of a national
prejudice
that wants to ignore blood? Indeed, the whole world history is one long,
revolutionary stream of blood...
--
Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
www.blumhardts.com
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