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The Socialists Want Dictatorship
Again, it is claimed that persons
are nothing but raw material. It is not for them to will their
own improvement; they are incapable of it. According to Saint-
Just, only the legislator is capable of doing this. Persons are
merely to be what the legislator wills them to be. According to
Robespierre, who copies Rousseau literally, the legislator begins
by decreeing the end for which the commonwealth has come into
being. Once this is determined, the government has only to direct
the physical and moral forces of the nation toward that end.
Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the nation are to remain completely
passive. And according to the teachings of Billaud- Varennes, the
people should have no prejudices, no affections, and no desires
except those authorized by the legislator. He even goes so far as
to say that the inflexible austerity of one man is the foundation
of a republic.
In cases where the alleged evil is
so great that ordinary governmental procedures cannot cure it,
Mably recommends a dictatorship to promote virtue:
"Resort," he says, "to an extraordinary tribunal
with considerable powers for a short time. The imagination of the
citizens needs to be struck a hard blow." This doctrine has
not been forgotten.
Listen to Robespierre: "The
principle of the republican government is virtue, and the means
required to establish virtue is terror. In our country we desire
to substitute morality for selfishness, honesty for honor,
principles for customs, duties for manners, the empire of reason
for the tyranny of fashion, contempt of vice for contempt of
poverty, pride for insolence, greatness of soul for vanity, love
of glory for love of money, good people for good companions,
merit for intrigue, genius for wit, truth for glitter, the charm
of happiness for the boredom of pleasure, the greatness of man
for the littleness of the great, a generous, strong, happy people
for a good-natured, frivolous, degraded people; in short, we
desire to substitute all the virtues and miracles of a republic
for all the vices and absurdities of a monarchy."
Clark Simmons, Webmaster
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