Robert Bucholz

“Most, like Voltaire, expected the monarchs and ruling elites of Europe to reform themselves for the good of humanity. Out of the dictates of logic, out of self-interest, things could not continue as they were. This strikes me as being fundamentally naïve. Ruling elites almost never give up privilege or short-term economic advantage for altruistic reasons or the dictates of logic or long-term interest even when they face catastrophe. Case in point, surely everyone in America understands what a good idea it would be politically, economically, environmentally to develop replenishable sources of fuel, and yet as of this taping, well anyway, so it was in the 18th century. As we have seen, reform from the top was slow in coming. Ancient monarchs were only interested in those reforms that enhanced their powers. Church leaders and nobles generally opposed them outright. In the end, the top of the Great Chain of Being just had too much to lose. But recall that some thinkers, Rousseau in particular, had called for a clean sweep of the Ancien Régime. While revolution is too strong a word to project onto Rousseau, that is what it would take. That step was taken within his lifetime, but not in Europe. In this lecture, we address arguably the most significant and long-lasting result of the Enlightenment, the American Revolution.”
― Robert Bucholz