Reactionary – What is it, Definition and Concept

The reactionary opposes progress, innovation, and progress on all political, social, and economic levels. He likes to live the current reality, but even more in a past ideal, in which the values were even before those living in his context.

That is to say; the reactionary is the person who opposes the political, economic, and social progress that is experienced in a certain society. For this reason, he views with suspicion any leftist or revolutionary political force because he considers them enemies of the values and principles that he defends.

The reactionary is associated with other profiles, such as the conservative, but they have some differences. It is also associated with ideologies such As liberalism, fascism, conservatism, or any current identified with the right, but this is far from correct.

Characteristics of the reactionary

The reactionary, as a person who opposes progress in many fields and areas, has a series of characteristics:

Origin of the Term

We have to look for the term's origin in the great Revolution contemporary, the French Revolution, which began in 1789. This event is one of the most relevant in the history of mankind; social and political paradigms were redefined, ending absolutism and laying the foundations for later regimes.

 

The Revolution was an extremely bloody event, killing tens of thousands of people. A large part of these victims were people who opposed the Revolution or some of its actions or drifts. These individuals were accused of being reactionaries, which comes from reacting to something, in this case, the revolutionary events.

 

To such an extent, the accusations and the course of the Revolution derive that all kinds of people were accused of being reactionaries, even those who had supported the Revolution or suggested that it take another path.

 

Differences Between Reactionary and Conservative

These two terms are very similar. They are popularly used as synonyms, but we will see that this is not entirely the case.

 

A conservative is a person who identifies with the current values and moral principles, those that prevail in a given society at the time in which they find themselves. This is the motivation for some civil wars and the hit of Statekeeping the status quo in the face of the threat of a profound paradigm shift.

 

On the other hand, although the reactionary may share this vision, he goes further. According to political scientist Mark Lilla, the reactionary yearns for an even more conservative past. Just as the revolutionary imagines and draws an ideal future situation, the reactionary does so with the past.

 

It should also be noted that it exists by the opposition. That is, faced with the threat of a change by the revolutionaries, the reactionary arises and fights so that this does not occur.