Pity
the decline of France. At one point (alright,in the 1790s), campaign
platforms had some zing to them. Here's Babeuf's proposal for the
communist state: ‘this government will make the boundaries disappear,
the hedges, the walls, the locks in doors, disputes, trials, thefts,
murders, all the crimes; the tribunals, prisons, gallows, penalties, the
despair that causes all calamities; envy, jealousy,
insatiability, pride, deceit, duplicity, and all the other vices; more
(and this point is no doubt essential) the gnawing worm of general
disquiet, particular disquiet , perpetually there for each of us on our
fate for tomorrow, for the month, for the following year, for our age,
for our children and their children.”
This is what I call a
campaign promise...
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