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[–]ArthnoldManacatsaman 13 insightful - 1 fun13 insightful - 0 fun14 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

But comforting to know that Robespierre's reign of terror was turned against him later in 1794, and he, too, was led to the guillotine.

[–]MarkTwainiac 20 insightful - 1 fun20 insightful - 0 fun21 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I personally don't find it "comforting," though I understand why others might. And the downfall and death of Robespierre and the rest of his Jacobin cronies on the "Committee of Public Safety" certainly shows where his kind of murderous, psychopathic mentality sometimes inevitably leads.

Unfortunately, over the course of history many other leaders who have espoused a similar philosophy and unleashed reigns of terror that killed many more people - such as Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot of Cambodia/Kampuchea, Botha et al of South Africa, Idi Amin of Uganda, Bokassa of the Republic of Central Africa/CAR, Charles Taylor of Liberia, Lubanga of the Congo, and before him King Leopold of Belgium during his reign of terror in the Congo, Pinochet of Chile, both the Shah and his successor the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, and many others - have not ended up so quickly hoist by their own petard. In fact, many of these mass-murdering men went on to live a very long time after and whilst causing so much slaughter, eventually dying of natural causes (or in a few cases, at their own hand) without ever being held to account.

So whilst it might seem gratifying to know that Robespierre got his comeuppance, what happened to him and his fellow Jacobin leaders in 1794 is hardly typical. Too often bad guys who espouse and practice terror get away with it, a fact that I find hardly consoling.