“You Are Expecting a Tyrant, While I Am Expecting a Martyr”
The idea of a martyr (as opposed to a tyrant) comes up in Kierkegaard’s
correspondence with the previously mentioned Kolderup-Rosenvinge,
professor of the history of jurisprudence, senior government official, and
dry-as-dust conservative. The letters exchanged by the two men are marked
by a sort of aristocratic clubbiness, larded with quotations from classical
literature, unctuous phrases, and similar staples of affectation. If someone
needs a quick introduction to Kierkegaard at his weirdest and worst, this
correspondence is a good place to begin. Hans Brøchner was also puzzled
about what Kierkegaard saw in Kolderup-Rosenvinge, who (according to
Brøchner) was “rather dull and in many ways extremely narrow-minded,”
but when Brøchner asked about the man, Kierkegaard emphasized his gen-
eral level of cultivation. Kierkegaard indeed “set great store by people from
the older generation who had retained the humane interests of earlier times
and the refined bearing so sorely lacking in the younger generation.”
The letters are of interest quite apart from all this, because it is here that
Kierkegaard summarized his views on the revolutionary events of February,
March, and June 1848, developing a sort of "vortex theory." In August
1848, Kierkegaard wrote: “You will surely grant that I am correct in view-
ing the entire development in Europe as an enormous skepticism or as a
vortex. What does a vortex seek? A fixed point at which it can stop. (And
you see, this is why—be it said in parentheses—I seek ‘that single individ-
ual.’)” Kierkegaard’s version of the events is not rich in political detail but
focuses on “that single individual” as the figure in which the mad vortex
of the age could be brought to a standstill. This could only be brought about
if a nonpolitical point situatedoutsidethe movements themselves could be
established: “And it is therefore my view of the entire European confusion
that it cannot be stopped except by religion. And I am convinced that just
as the remarkable thing about the Reformation was that it looked like a
religious movement but turned out to be a political one, so will the move-
ments of our times, which look to be merely political, suddenly reveal
themselves to be religious or a need for religion.”
It is curious that Kierkegaard ventured an opinion such as the above in
the middle of a letter that is otherwise characterized by unserious intellectual
blather. And Kolderup-Rosenvinge probably also viewed the vortex theory
as a somewhat tedious joke by his learned interlocutor. It was clearly not
intended as such, as is clear from Kierkegaard’s later variations on the same
theme. Kierkegaard senses a reversal that could make it clear that anappar-