Science, he insists, can only have gone backwards since Noah got off of his ark. Knowledge now must be worse than then. So anyone trying to show truths through investigation would be better off knuckling down to their prayers and letting god see them right.
That’s not to say De Maistre is without hope for the human race. At some point, he hopes to execute a large part of it. The only human for whom he seems to feel any sympathy for is the public executioner – the figure whose threat holds the rest of civilisation in line.
“All greatness, all power, all subordination rests on the executioner; he is the both the horror and the bond of human association. Remove this incomprehensible agent from the world and in a moment the order gives way to chaos, thrones fall and society disappears.”
If wrong-doing wasn’t punished by execution, the world would obviously fall into chaos. Why, de Maistre wonders, do we therefore treat the executioner with such hostility? Surely they are the great heroes of the world, willing to suffer the loathing of the public in order to uphold the public order.
https://manversusideas.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/69-joseph-de-maistre-the-executioner/
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