Babboof's delusion also reflected a vanguardist conception of political action. Ironically, it was precisely that moment state of popular demobilization that made his conspiracy totally unworkable in the first place. I think he's terrified that a door is closing, that if they don't act quickly, the chance to restore a popular republic and create a society without property will vanish.
Featuring Laura Mason on her book The Last Revolutionaries: The Conspiracy Trial of Gracchus Babeuf and the Equals. Mason discusses Babeuf's call to abolish property, his radically egalitarian conspiracy against the Directory government, and the end of the French Revolution. How a centrist government turned its back on popular democracy, presided over growing inequality and working-class poverty, and abetted the rise of the reactionary right that would ultimately overthrow it.
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