The French Invented Communism (Not the British)(Or the Jews)

A Rebuttal to Richard Poe's Book "How the British Invented Communism (And Blamed It on the Jews)"

Richard Poe, makes an interesting claim, in his book How the British Invented Communism (And Blamed It on the Jews), which is backed up by the Larouche movement’s main spokesperson, Matthew Erhet. Both are of the opinion that the British invented communism. In the interest of shedding some sunlight on these assertions, this article is a rebuttal of this strange theory.

Just in case anyone was thinking I am going to blame the Jews for the creation of communism—on the contrary, I agree with Poe’s assertion that the Jews had nothing to do with the creation of communism.

But neither did the British.

I have written extensively on the origins of our modern dilemma:

Bavarians, Jacobins and Vampires: The Beginnings of the Conspiracy

Richard Poe dives into the origins of the Illuminati, by making the claim that Alexander Horn, who was a British secret agent, provided the intellectual basis for John Robison’s book, Proofs of a Conspiracy, and shared his research with Augustin Barruel.

Augustin Barruel, was a French Jesuit priest and he wrote Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, which details a conspiracy involving the Jacobins, the Enlightenment thinkers, Freemasons, and the Illuminati, that led directly to the French Revolution. He claimed the Illuminati, a secret society founded in 1776, played a significant role in radicalizing the movement against the throne and altar. Barruel's work sparked the “Illuminati scare” in the United States from 1798 to 1800, influencing American intellectuals to spread this theory.

From Richard Poe’s book:

The central ideas of Barruel’s book—that the Bavarian Illuminati were the hidden instigators of the French Revolution; that they aimed to build a Satanic world order on the ruins of Christendom; and, finally, that they disguised their Satanic agenda beneath a veneer of good intentions, preaching liberty, equality, fraternity and the Rights of Man—all came from British sources. Barruel’s most important source was the aforementioned John Robison, a Scottish physicist, mathematician, and prominent Freemason, who was writing a book on the same subject, and who generously shared his research with Barruel. Robison, in turn, had gotten much of his material from one Alexander Horn, a Scottish Benedictine monk who happens to have been a British secret agent and diplomat. (pp. 120-121)

The source of this claim is from a passage in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Full text here.

“His work contributed to the birth of the conspiracy theory of the illuminati … Horn wrote anonymously, condemning France’s activities in undermining the Holy Roman Empire. He supplied the material that formed the core of John Robison’s 1797 allegation of an international conspiracy of freemasons, illuminati, and Jacobins.”

This passage is written by Abbot Mark Dilworth, whose obituary states, “Other articles were written for the Oxford Companion to Scottish History and for an American encyclopedia of monasticism. To the new Dictionary of National Biography, Abbot Mark contributed six articles, taking his total to 35.”

Dilworth died on February 28, 2004, meaning that he wrote this passage sometime during his career, at least 200 years after the fact. The passage contains no footnotes or references to back up this claim that Horn supplied the core of Robison’s book.

There is no reference to Alexander Horn in either Augustine Barruel or John Robison’s books. In the Perfectibilists, the most definitive study of the early days of the Illuminati, there is likewise no mention of Alexander Horn. Nor is there any mention of Jews or British agents.

The facts are that the Bavarian Illuminati was the creation of Bavarian Germans, not Jews or Brits. Adam Weishaupt was the evil genius behind the Illuminati and he was a German. Some have implied that it was the Vatican who created the Illuminati because Weishaupt was a Jesuit trained lawyer. The fact that Weishaupt despised the Jesuits, and the Christian church, does not seem to register, but more on this later.

German historian, Claus Oberhauseer, provides the most scholarly account of the alleged claim that Alexander Horn “supplied the material that formed the core” of Robison’s book. Oberhauser agrees that, yes, it is true, Alexander Horn was a British secret agent. Claus Oberhauser from the University of Innsbruck claims Horn (1762–1820) adopted a number of roles as a monk, diplomat, secret agent and manuscript trader, but he qualifies this by saying:

“Maurus Alexander Horn or, to use his cover name, Mister Bergström could be described as a predecessor of James Bond. However, it is difficult to estimate how much Horn really contributed to the Proofs of a Conspiracy, as there is no indication that he and Robison corresponded. At least, it is clear that Robison collected material about the Illuminati and the Freemasons in his Commonplace Book, primarily using the literature reports in the latest religious events.”

Alexander Horn was a dealer in books. The confusion is that Horn most likely sold Robison some books, but did not influence the direction of Robison’s manuscript as Dilworth implies. Thus, it is true that Alexander Horn “supplied the material that formed the core” of Robison’s book, but there is no evidence to support the claim that the British were the seed and intellectual source of the Illuminati.

Richard Poe continues to state, “Moreover, as already mentioned, Barruel was largely dependent on British sources for his material.” (p. 121)

Richard Poe states there are sources (plural) yet only provides one source. Poe then continues in the attempt to implicate Edmund Burke in this alleged British conspiracy, in a letter that Burke wrote to Robison:

Burke recognized the propaganda value of Barruel’s work, stating, “the great object of my Wishes is, that the Work should have a great circulation in France,” for which purpose Burke offered financial support. (p. 122).

Poe reverts back to his only source which is Alexander Horn:

“Both books appeared the same year, 1797. Barruel and Robison thus formed a kind of echo chamber, both promoting the idea that the Bavarian Illuminati were the true culprits behind the French Revolution—an idea which seems to have come originally from British secret agent Alexander Horn.” (p. 122).

He wonders out loud:

“For whatever reason, neither Barruel nor Robison had accused the Jews of playing any significant significant role in the French Revolution. Their Illuminist-Masonic theory was not yet a Judeo-Masonic theory. That would soon change.” (p. 123).

The reason is very simple: Because there were no Jews involved. In the Perfectibilists, there are detailed bios of the original 400 members of the Illuminati. The only Jewish name mentioned is the philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn. The Jews were banned from the Freemasons in most parts of Europe.

One of the main intellectual leaders of the Enlightenment was Voltaire, who was a rabid anti-Semite, and writing about Jews in his Letter of Memmius to Cicero in 1771, Voltaire claimed: “They are, all of them, born with raging fanaticism in their hearts, just as the Bretons and the Germans are born with blond hair.” In an essay the following year, Voltaire condemned the European Jews: “You deserve to be punished, for this is your destiny.”

It was Moses Mendelssohn who lobbied the Freemasons to open the doors to the European Jews:

Yet it was in Germany, where Masonry included representatives of the intellectual elite steeped in modern humanism, that many Jews began from the late eighteenth century to knock on the door of temples, only to be refused admission.

It was also in Germany that Gotthold Ephraim Lessing—who saw Freemasons as a model of universalism, benevolence, and fraternity, and the ultimate philosophers—maintained a friendship with another enlightened mind, Moses Mendelssohn. This was a friendship characterized by a community of philosophical ideals. Yet when Mendelssohn expressed the desire to learn more about Masonry, Lessing refused to tell him what went on in a lodge. A Christian Mason like Lessing, despite fighting for the emancipation of the Jews, was still therefore unable to bear one of them entering the brotherhood.

Just to reiterate, I agree with Poe’s position on the absence of Jewish involvement:

Barruel and Robison, with their respective books, had introduced the public to the Illuminati, and to the idea that Satanist followers of Adam Weishaupt had infiltrated Masonic lodges, using them as platforms to promote revolution. Significantly, however, neither book accused the Jews of any significant role in this conspiracy. (p. 126)

Poe even repeats the words of Nesta Webster, who is one of the main founders of the Jewish Conspiracy Theory:

“We should require more than such vague assertions to refute the evidence of men who, like Barruel and Robison, devoted exhaustive study to the subject and attributed the whole plan of the Illuminati and its fulfilment in the French Revolution to German brains. Neither Weishaupt, Knigge, nor any of the ostensible founders of Illuminism were Jews; moreover, as we have seen, Jews were excluded from the association except by special permission. None of the leading revolutionaries of France were Jews, nor were the members of the conspiracy of Babeuf.”( pp. 129-130).

None of them were British either.

For greater analysis of the French Revolution:

The Mother of All Revolutions: The French Revolution is the Origin of the Great Reset

THE FRENCH INVENTED COMMUNISM

The historical record reveals that it was neither the British, nor the Jews who invented communism. It was the influence of the French philosophers, like Voltaire, Rousseau, D’alembert and Diderot that resulted in the theories of communism and socialism, which are both a product of the Enlightenment, and did not originate either from British intrigue or Jewish subterfuge.

The first part of Augustin Barruel’s theory is that radical philosophers in Voltaire’s circle had stirred up society. This is something Richard Poe does not even mention in his book—nor does he mention the Enlightenment.

Communism is based on the idea of the shared communal ownership of land, resources, and production.

All communists without exception propose that the people as a whole, or some particular division of the people, as a village or commune, should own all the means of production--land, houses, factories, railroads, canals, etc.; that production should be carried on in common; and that officers, selected in one way or another, should distribute among the inhabitants the fruits of their labor. [Richard T. Ely, “French and German Socialism in Modern Times,” New York, 1883]

To return to the quote from Nesta Webster, (“None of the leading revolutionaries of France were Jews, nor were the members of the conspiracy of Babeuf”), she mentions the Jacobin, François-Noël Babeuf, also known as Gracchus Babeuf. The reason she does this is because Babeuf was one of the first communists. In fact, he has been called The First Revolutionary Communist.

Oddly enough, Poe admits this:

Communism was born on the streets of revolutionary Paris. More than fifty years before Marx and Engels penned The Communist Manifesto, a faction of French radicals calling itself the Conspiracy of Equals was already preaching classless society, abolition of private property and the need for revolutionary action. (p. 51)

Poe then claims that Babeuf had “British mentors” but only mentions one of them, James Rutledge, who befriended Babeuf. There is no evidence that Rutledge was Babeuf’s mentor. Who is to say that Babeuf was not Rutledge’s mentor? Babeuf was banned from French society and needed a job, and began to work for Le Courrier d’Europe, a biweekly newspaper, published in France and Britain. Poe points out that the publication was owned by British secret agent, Samuel Swinton, and thus concludes that the British were the hidden hand behind Babeuf’s revolutionary communist ideas.

Poe states, the publication promoted “radical doctrines as the overthrow of the French aristocracy and the establishment of a classless society.” (p. 54). Yes, this is true because the editors and directors of the publication were ALL French revolutionaries:

editors - Jacques Brissot, The Fite of Pellepore, Desforges

directors - Serre de la Tour, Morande's Theveneau.

There does not appear to have been any British input into the publication at all.

In fact, Swinton married a French woman, Jeanne-Felicity Lefebvre, daughter of an officer of the French Guard of Louis XVI of France. In 1779, the Swintons lived in the Chateau d’Hesdin-l’Abbe, which they rented out to Michel-Augustin-Joseph-Charles Clery de Becourt. The couple was friends with Pierre Beaumarchais who became the godfather of their daughter Marie-Charlotte Swinton.

Swinton appears to have been a Francophile, not an Anglophile.

One of Poe’s main sources is historian James Billington’s book Fire in the Minds of Men. However, Billington agrees that it was the French who were the originators of communism:

The third new ideal to arise out of the French Revolution was that of communauté: a new type of social and economic community based on equality. Though this ideal was the least articulated at the time (and the least important politically throughout the nineteenth century), it has important roots in the revolutionary era. The revolutionary egalitarianism of Babeuf, Marechal, and Restif de Ia Bretonne is the progenitor of modern Communism—and of revolutionary socialism, the rival ideal of revolutionary nationalism. The new egalitarian communalism was rooted in Rousseau's call for a social contract that would repudiate inequality among men and legitimize authority by permitting the "general will" to unify the community on a new basis.

Billington discusses one of the first French revolutionary groups:

The most important such body to appear in the Palais-Royal during the turbulent and creative early years of the revolution was the Social Circle (Cercle Social), which was in some ways the prototype for the revolutionary organizations of the future.

Poe misunderstands Billington, and misattributes this group, Cercle Social, claiming, “Through Rutledge and his circle, Babeuf became acquainted with the Courrier de l’Europe, a French-language newspaper published in London and distributed in France.” (p. 54)

The Cercle Social, also known as the Society of the Friends of Truth, (Amis de la Verité) was a rival to the Jacobins, and it was intellectually inspired by Rousseau’s book, the Social Contract.

The word communism was first used in English by John Goodwyn Barmby in a conversation with those he described as the “disciples of Babeuf.”

Another early communist was the pornographer Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne, who is also noted for using the term communist, in 1785 in his book review of Joseph-Alexandre-Victor Hupay de Fuveau. Hupay described himself as “communist” with his Project for a Philosophical Community. This book is one of the cornerstones in the history of communism. It describes for the first time how people living in a commune should live within a communal philosophy. The author explains that all must “share all economic and material products between inhabitants of the 'commune,' so that all may benefit from everybody’s work.” Restif would go on to use the term frequently in his writing, and was the first to describe communism as a form of government.

The French Jacobins and the Bavarian Illuminati, made strange bedfellows to be sure, but Germany was the center of materialist philosophy, and the location of the beginnings of the revolt against the church. It was Martin Luther who attached his litany of complaints on the door of the Wittenberg church in Germany. It is unsurprising then, that a revolutionary movement beginning in Germany would be inclined to overthrow both church and state. The western philosophical schools have long been dominated by German philosophers, such as Hegel, Kant, Nietzsche, and Heidegger.

The rest of Richard Poe’s thesis rests on the shaky foundation of his first premise, that it was the British who were the intellectual inspiration for the Illuminati, and the driving force behind the French Revolution, and ultimately communism.

It is not within the scope of this article to dissect Poe’s remaining arguments. It is unsurprising that Poe finds a receptive audience with the Larouche movement, who are blinded by the American nationalism of their leader Lyndon Larouche. Most of the rest of Poe’s book is point for point a British Empire conspiracy theory.

The supreme irony that a hardcore capitalist nation like Britain is blamed for creating communism should not be missed. The people that Poe points the finger at, such as the Round Table group were hardcore capitalists, not communists.

This is not to say that the globalists have not exploited communism for their own purposes, because they definitely have, but the globalists use every ideology to their advantage. The globalists have infiltrated both the left and the right, Christianity, Islam, the New Age movement and many other ideologies. They are ideological whores and will get in bed with anyone, if it suits their purposes.

There is a consistent theme with many conservatives within the alternative community, who seem oblivious to the takeover of all our institutions by hardcore monopoly capitalists, and consistently blame liberals, democrats, socialists and communists for all the woes of the world. It is paradoxical when monopoly capitalists like Bill Gates literally buy the World Health Organization, and then these same conservatives cry “commie!”

THE BLAME GAME

It is human nature to point the finger and play the blame game. If there is a crime, then somebody must be responsible. I have posted in previous articles the long list of alleged villains that the alternative community has put forward, but I remain a lone voice in the wilderness, because I have long advocated that we are not dealing with a who, but a what.

The usual suspects include:

• Karl Marx/Socialists/Communists

• Liberals/leftist/Democrats

• LGBTQ/Trans/Feminists

• Jews/Zionists/Khazarians

• Satan/Lucifer/Sin/Fallen Race

• Aliens/Anunnaki/Reptilians

• The Vatican/Jesuits/Pope

• Black Nobility/Venetian mafia

• The British Empire/London/Wall St.

• Occult secret societies

• 13 Bloodlines

• Illuminati/Freemasons

• Committee of 300/Club of Rome/Council of 30

• Sumerian/Egyptian/Babylonians

• Islam/Hamas/Iran/Hezbollah

• Post Modernism/Woke Ideology

• American Empire/NATO/Deep State

• Unipolar Western Hegemon

• Bankers/BIS/Federal Reserve

• Military Industrial Complex

• Mainstream Media

• Organised religion

• China/Russia

The answer, that is closer to the truth, (but not the whole truth) is all of the above. The real answer is that the world is infected with S.H.A.M. (secularism, humanism, atheism, materialism.)

The Enlightenment thinkers created the intellectual climate that influenced the Illuminati (literally the Enlightened), the Freemasons and the Jacobins to overthrow the church who were in bed with the monarchy. This Secular Revolt was the catalyst for the amazing and terrible scientific revolution, that has given us our modern world. It has also given us the horrible harvest of world wars, that killed 200 million people in the last century.

The Secular Revolt delivered us from the clutches of a totalitarian church empire, but then sold us into the hands of a far worse tyrant—the dictatorial secular police state. Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia and Maoist China were products of secular, atheist humanism.

Now we are facing the greatest menace of all—a global secular techno-state which is inspired not by communism, but by Stakeholder Capitalism. The hardcore capitalists have put aside their ruthless competition with each other, in order to monopolize the wealth of the whole planet and enslave mankind.

KARL MARX

Communism can thus be seen as a political reaction against the church, monarchy and industrial capitalism. Born out of the Enlightenment and the Secular Revolt, communism is rooted in the same materialist ideology that is the basis for ALL our modern social, political and economic institutions.

Capitalism is a secular philosophy, that is neither holy nor sacred. There is no God of Money. In fact, for my Christian readers, this is what your leader said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” The truth is the Christian church is infected with secular materialism, just like the rest of society. Most Christians are unconsciously humanists who pay lip service to a cultural religion, while they engage in the same sectarian politics as the so-called pagans. This explains the failure of the church to warn us about the plandemic, and also the reason for their abject compliance to secular medical tyranny.

Karl Marx was first and foremost an atheist. His political philosophy is based on historical materialism, that states that history is the story of the struggle between different social classes rooted in the underlying economic base. The Communist Manifesto begins with the infamous statement:, “the history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle.”

Real history, in this humble blogger’s opinion, is the struggle for freedom, on all levels—economic, political, social and spiritual freedom—because the grand adventure of all human life is the quest for greater freedom. Marxist ideology imagines a false apartheid of a proletariat underclass fighting the capitalist controllers of production, but the real struggle is for human beings to individually strive for greater freedom for themselves and everyone else, not just for their oppressed social class.

True freedom sets everyone free.

Scientific socialism and the rest of Marxist thought is based on the doctrine that only physical matter and its motions are real. Materialism states that everything—nature, history, even human thought—is reducible to matter moving in accordance with the laws of motion. Communism fails, because it is the vain attempt to create a solidarity of brothers and sisters without a spiritual parent. Atheism claims we are orphans in the universe, lost in a meaningless spacetime continuum made only of energy and matter.

I for one would love to live in a utopian society where people shared things in common, and war and violence were a thing of the past. The reason we have private property is because human beings insist on owning things in the interest of material comfort and security. The simple truth is that the more spiritual a person becomes, the less interest they have in material things, and the more interest they have in their fellow human beings.

However, the human race is running headlong over the cliff, going in the wrong direction. Political solidarity or more simply, a brotherhood of humankind, cannot be created without the universal father who created the brothers and sisters.

Political life in our modern society is horribly rooted in the false idea that life is a choice between capitalism and communism, but the truth is that the choice is about who you serve, not how much money you have, or whether you want to share your money with others, or not.

Neither communism nor capitalism will save humanity.

Communism’s inherent weakness is that it is easily exploited by its enemies, and this is proven by a hundred years of history. Capitalism’s inherent weakness is that it is based on profit motive, which is selfishness. The American Dream, otherwise known as “the pursuit of happiness,” is a euphemism for selfishness.

The problem is not the system, the problem is the motivation of the system managers. Profit motive needs to be replaced with service motive. The system will only truly change when the system managers give up their delusions of grandeur, and become motivated by the selfless service to others. Failing that, better stewards will eventually replace them, whether by gradual evolution or armed revolution.

Humanity is indeed heading for a New World Order, but the dystopian vision of the globalist will not prevail. Their bleak nirvana is dead on arrival, and they themselves are dinosaurs of the past, doomed to extinction. The Real World Order will eventually triumph because the people will rise up, sooner or later and overthrow the tyrants, once and for all. A better age is already upon us, knocking at the door.

Let us hope and pray it arrives sooner rather than later.