Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site loral.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcc6!loral!simard
From: simard@loral.UUCP (Ray Simard)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Napoleon on religion and politics
Message-ID: <614@loral.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 4-Nov-84 14:19:15 EST
Article-I.D.: loral.614
Posted: Sun Nov  4 14:19:15 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 6-Nov-84 06:25:28 EST
References: <410@uwmacc.UUCP>
Reply-To: simard@loral.UUCP (Ray Simard)
Distribution: net
Organization: Loral Instrumentation, San Diego, CA
Lines: 39
Summary: 

In article <410@uwmacc.UUCP> bllklly@uwmacc.UUCP (Bill Kelly) writes:
>
>     "How can you have order in a state without  religion?   Society  cannot
>exist  without  the  inequality  of fortunes, which cannot endure apart from
>religion.  When one man is dying of hunger near another who is ill  of  sur-
>feit, he cannot resign himself to this difference unless there is an author-
>ity which declares 'God wills it thus: there must be rich and  poor  in  the
>world:  but  hereafter  and during all eternity, the division of things will
>take place differently.'"                         -- Napoleon Bonaparte
>
>     I'm tempted to draw parallels  between  Napoleon's  view  and  Reagan's
>leanings  towards  government  support  of  Christianity.   However, I think
>Reagan is sincere, not Machiavellian, about most of his  beliefs  (religious
>and otherwise).

     It is more than a little misleading and unfair to drag a quote  from  a
bygone  era,  in a different location and culture, and use it in this way to
promote a position. One must recall that, in the time  and  place  in  which
Napoleon  said  this, the caste system was formally recognized and enforced,
and believed good (as the quote  suggests).  Religion,  in  this  case,  was
looked upon as a salve for the oppressed, a source of comfort and relief.

     Today, nobody, including Reagan, suggests a return to the caste  system
and a dominant aristocracy, with different sets of legal rights for them and
the "common people".  The suggestion otherwise is  part  of  the  continuing
illusion  that  Reagan is less caring and compassionate to the poor than his
more liberal colleagues. I have elaborated on that elsewhere; I refer you to
my other postings, which are recent enough to still be available.

        A little note: In my first sentence above, I was not at all suggest-
ing  that  quotations  from  the past are not useful and relevant - just the
association suggested in the original article  between  Napoleon's  attitude
and Reagan's policies.
-- 
[     I am not a stranger, but a friend you haven't met yet     ]

Ray Simard
Loral Instrumentation, San Diego
{ucbvax, ittvax!dcdwest}!sdcsvax!sdcc6!loral!simard