"
And worse still,
"one was even afraid to be oneself; one changed one's name, one went
in disguise, wearing a vulgar and tasteless attire; everybody shrunk
from being what he was."
For, according to the Jacobin program, all Frenchmen must be
recast[147] in one uniform mold; they must be taken when small; all
must be subject to the same enforced education, that of a mechanic,
rustic and soldier's boy. Be warned, ye adults, by the guillotine,
reform yourselves beforehand according to the prescribed pattern! No
more costly, elegant or delicate crystal or gold vases! All are
shattered or are still being shattered. Henceforth, only common ware
is to be tolerated or ordered to be made, all alike in substance,
shape and color, manufactured by thousands at wholesale and in public
factories, for the common and plain uses of rural and military life;
all original and superior forms are to be rejected.
"The masters of the day," writes Daunou,[148] "deliberately aimed
their sword thrusts at superior talent, at energetic characters; they
mowed down as well as they could in so short a time, the flower and
hope of the nation."
In this respect they were consistent; equality-socialism[149] allows
none but automatic citizens, mere tools in the hands of the State, all
alike, of a rudimentary fashion and easily managed, without personal
conscience, spontaneity, curiosity or integrity; whoever has
cultivated himself, whoever has thought for himself and exercised his
own will and judgment rises above the level and shakes off the yoke;
to obtain consideration, to be intelligent and honorable, to belong to
the ?lite, is to be anti-revolutionary.
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