"[60]
We have provided for this for the present day and we likewise provide
for it in the future. - None of the vast tumors which have sucked the
sap of the human plant are to remain; we have cut them away with a few
telling blows, while the steady-moving machine, permanently erected by
us, will shear off their last tendrils should they change to sprout
again.
VI.
Conditions requisite for making a citizen. - Plans for suppressing
poverty. Measures in favor of the poor.
In returning Man to his natural condition we have prepared for the
advent of the Social Man. The object now is to form the citizen, and
this is possible only through a leveling of conditions. In a well
made society there shall be "neither rich nor poor"[61]: we have
already destroyed the opulence which corrupts; it now remains for us
to suppress the poverty which degrades. Under the tyranny of material
things, which is as oppressive as the tyranny of men, Man falls below
himself. Never will a citizen be made out of a poor fellow condemned
to remain valet, hireling or beggar, reduced to thinking only of
himself and his daily bread, asking in vain for work, or, plodding
when he gets it, twelve hours a day at a monotonous pursuit, living
like a beast of burden and dying in a alms-house.
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