I’m still quite confused about why exactly he decided to start with Revolutionary France rather than America or any of the other places that defined themselves by a unique place and a unique nation. Especially with the fact that he goes into German stuff which honestly feels like a better starting point.
Very interesting listen.
What I found particularly cool is that Rousseau’s point - defining what constitutes a nation and that people unwilling to follow it should be forced to do so - while being wildly libertarian at the time, now sounds like something today’s libertarians would be horrified of.
His points about Mazzini’s ideology were beautifully argued
Just beautiful. This does remind me how extremely modern his thought still is (something something European federalism)
Such a shame it got perverted even In it’s own time.