Thread by @SeanBerube4

The French Revolution was a bloody disaster

Mobs ruled, cities burned, and guillotines roared — how could anyone fight back against such horrors?

Charles Dickens had the answer, and wrote a book all about it:

Here’s his advice on how to stop a Reign of Terror… 🧵

Charles Dickens writes on France’s Reign of Terror in his novel A Tale of Two Cities (spoilers)

Paris was wrought with revolutionary violence:

One false accusation could label you an “enemy of the revolution,” and send you to the guillotine

But what drove this hysteria?

The Reign of Terror was driven by wrath:

The “oppressed” were “eating the rich”

This spirit of wrath led to a perpetual cycle of violence:

Victims become oppressors, violence begets violence, bloodshed multiplies, heads begin to roll...

It would be easy to feel powerless in such a dystopia:

How can I resist a mass-murdering government?

The answer is not what you think

It doesn’t entail violence, politics, or even leadership

Instead, simply follow the example of the story’s hero - a drunken lawyer…

Sydney Carton is the ultimate cynic

He’s an alcoholic attorney who believes himself a failure and waste of life

Only a kind-hearted woman - Lucie Manette - brings him joy

His love for her awakens a long dormant heroism inside him

As the novel progresses, Sydney’s love for Lucie flourishes, and so does his humanity

He expresses a growing desire for redemption:

To commit himself to a noble ideal to make his “wasted” life meaningful…

His heroic moment comes at the novel’s conclusion

Lucie’s husband, Charles, is unjustly arrested in Paris - sentenced to death

Sydney, seeing a chance for redemption, plots the unthinkable:

Break into prison, free Charles, and take his place under the guillotine

It’s a heartbreaking sacrifice, but Sydney affirms it’s necessary:

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done"

But why is such a sacrifice necessary? How does it help Sydney, or stop a Reign of Terror?

Beyond saving Charles, this act redeems Sydney’s life:

His entire existence becomes one of beauty

But Sydney’s sacrifice isn’t just an act of personal redemption:

It’s an act of grace that counteracts the wrath of the French Reign of Terror

Sydney’s sacrifice didn’t literally stop the Reign of Terror, but it points to a crucial truth:

Tyranny is built on wrath

You don’t defeat violence with violence for “whoever slayeth man, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold”

Wrath begets wrath until society dies

Instead, you resist wrath with grace

Sydney - by laying down his life - resisted the cycle of violence that fueled the revolution…

His sacrifice reminds us that the martyr is the ultimate hero, because the martyr’s grace restores sanity to a fallen world

It’s the same truth as Christ on the cross

It’s why Solzhenitsyn said you fight tyranny by “resisting the lie,” even if you die for it

The answer to a reign of terror is an act of mercy:

You find your life by losing your life in love for The Good

Hence Sydney didn’t find his life until he was under the guillotine

His sacrifice openly defied one of the greatest tyrannies known to man

We face the same challenge - not necessarily to be martyrs - but to grow the same courage as Sydney:

To bring grace to a world of evil...

Though we don't live in Revolutionary France, lies run rampant today more than ever:

Anyone can be captured by wrath, yet the most radical resistance is a charitable act of grace

More than saving your soul, your small acts of mercy may help in setting the whole world right

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