Kevin Gowen wrote:
> Patrick EMIN wrote:
>
>>There is a difference though between the way french can be cynical
>>and the way the US government is. Thanks to a long tradition of human
>>right respect in France dating back to the "Siècle des Lumières",
> 
> I am pretty sure Maximilien Robespierre was around during the siecle
> des lumieres. How can I say "La Terreur" in English?

The English term describing the hijacking of an immature political
system by extremist individuals pushing a paranoid agenda is
"McCarthyism."