Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821), o reacionário

e nada parvo.

"I have often had a vision that I would like to share with you. Imagine that a stranger to our planet comes here for some sufficient reason, and talks to one of us about the order that reigns in this world . Among the curious things that are recounted to him, he is told that corruption and vices, about which he has been fully informed, in certain circumstances require men to die by the hand of men, and that we restrict this right to kill legally to the executioner and to the soldier. 

He will also be told: “ The first brings death to convicted and condemned criminals, and these executions are so rare fortunately that one of these ministers of death suffices for each province. As for soldiers, there are never enough of them for they kill without restraint, and they always kill honest men. 

Of these two professional killers, the soldier and the executioner, the one is greatly honoured and has always been so honoured among the peoples that up to present have inhabited this planet to which you have come. The other, on the contrary, has just as generally been declared infamous. 

Can you guess on which one the condemnation falls?" 

 Joseph de Maistre: The Executioner - The Senator (from the Seventh Dialogue)

PS: a minha descoberta de Maistre tem um certa piada, pondo-me a ler o conhecido texto crítico por Isaiah Berlin (representando o espírito liberal englishman de Oxford -  família emigrou da Letónia tinha ele 10 anos) contra o representante da contra-revolução reacionária pós-Rev. Francesa e católico ultramontano), e contendo diversas citações suas, encontrei-me na posição de gostar mais das citações de Joseph de Maistre (escolhidas a dedo para espelhar a crítica) que do texto de Berlin. Maistre, concorde-se ou não, tendo ou não em conta o contexto histórico, tem uma escrita superior em toda a sua construção de argumentos, mas digo-o sem propriamente ser um conhecedor a fundo de ambos. Claro que podem imaginar a que fundo de baú intelectual está votado de Maistre e em que montanha de prestígio se situa Berlin.