570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY Sergio Zenere
SADE, OWEN AND THE SOCIAL BODY Sergio Zenere
ISBN:978-1-312-78093-4
University of Exeter Department of Lifelong Learning 1
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY May 2009
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570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY ESSAY OUTLINE Starting from a self-contained digression from Sade's non-obscene novel Aline et
Valcour (1795) and Robert Owen's A New View of Society (1816), both purposefully engineered as a manifesto, a comparison is attempted -within the study's limited scope – between Sade's and Owen's andragogy and idea of a 'new society' in the realm of (Utopian) reformism. Their advocacy survives today in the postmodern legacy that still recurs to allpurpose sophisms to advance new causes by eliciting strong emotional responses. Both authors have been described in a number of diverse and conflicting ways spanning the extremes of the political spectrum. In spite of the obvious differences between accomplished industrialist and trail-blazing reformer Owen and lunatic Sade, whose direct political experience was scant, their views reveals glaring similarities that go well beyond the Utopian motif of imaginary worlds concocted as beacon of progress.
Both preach a non-judgmental, non-violent view based on empathy and strive to foster feelings of brotherhood and communality. Through Owen's own words and ZamĂŠ's (Sade's fictional ruler of an imaginary island in the Southern Seas ), readers learn how both consider the then current state of affairs (society, power structures, enforced values ) based on injustice and disequilibrium; they both hold it accountable for generating social ills (crime, profligacy etc ), in turn incorrectly dealt with through repressive laws; both forewarn
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570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY the ruling classes of impeding upheaval that will result fatal to their power, unless they promptly embrace and implement their suggestions. Both plead overall more as hallucinating seers than as level-headed social scientists, dabble in prophecies of various kinds and consider themselves in a fight against reactionary and bigoted forces of darkness standing in the way of humanity's ultimate betterment.
Both curiously support trends in (public) policy making that were considered highly eccentric, if not flatly deviant, in their time, but are the received and accepted norm in our time. Sade's 'new society' in fact is decidedly 'communist' and the social body takes the form of an impersonal, yet all-powerful nanny and welfare State that under the meek pretense of protecting people from themselves shows the grin of totalitarian dirigisme and omnipresent control of Fascist tendency. Because he operated as a lobbyist in the real world trying to win converts among the ruling classes, Owen understandably needed much more caution: some critics think he was a revolutionary, while others think he only intended 'improve' society, and not to redress all inequalities in a fantasy world.
Both societies (Sade's imaginary one and Owen's real-life one ) present similar civic practices: compulsory military service along the lines of the nation in arms ready to raise as one to defend the best of all governments (the one that implemented their suggestions, that is); the burden of education shifts from families onto the community (the 4
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY State for Sade; the State in theory and the community in practice for Owen ); a omnipresent surveillance system to monitor, educate and inspire is present, thus opinion is the prevalent method of social healing, while punishments are in most cases administered on a 'name and shame', non-violent basis. Both serenade the reader to follow the 'divine' altruism they champion; in exchange for a 'modest and accessory' surrender of private rights and liberties in its favor, an all-encompassing and ever-growing nanny and police State will -in their view- only want (and thus do) what is good for everyone, even for those who still can't see it that way. History has shown social alchemy and control to be dangerous practices, whose outcome will be at variance with the meek and even wholesome wishes of the nice reformer who just can't help people enough.
WORD COUNT:610
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570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY ESSAY Comparing D.A.F de Sade (1740-1814) with Robert Owen (1771-1858) may seem at first highly subjective and haphazard, for Owen was an extremely popular reformer, lobbyist and industrialist, whereas Sade - a nobleman turned pornographer- spent most of his adult life in captivity and had only scant direct political experience as member -and later president, “as citizen Brutus Sade” (von Kuehnelt-Leddihn 2000:4, note 7 i) - of revolutionary
Section des Piques, “some sort of democratic SS” (Ibid). This essay will first explore Owen's and Sade's contemporary (and postmodern) legacy, while their thought is placed in the context of (Utopian) reformism, whose strategy of persuasion will be compared to a series of sophisms, that is all-purpose emotive pleas. Next, the choice of Owen's and Sade's texts will be introduced and supported; and an overview ensues summarily detailing judgments passed on both, with attention being paid to differences and similarities in their approach. A discussion of Sade's utopia follows, interspersed with comparisons with Owen's real-life practice: the role of an all-encompassing welfare and nanny State exerting absolute control -in isolation- over its subjects and adopting a non-violent ethos based on altruism and empathy.
It is not far fetched, however, to remark the similarity not only between Sade's and Owen's systems and the classic form of Utopian reformism, but especially with each other; this is not to concur with Marx's opinion on which kind of socialism be Utopian, for 6
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY considerations that apply to others apply especially to Marx:
while -...- communist society -...- makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic. -...Empirically, communism is only possible as the act of the dominant peoples "all at once" and simultaneously, which presupposes the universal development of productive forces and the world intercourse bound up with communism. -...- The proletariat can thus only exist worldhistorically, just as communism, its activity, can only have a "worldhistorical" existence. World-historical existence of individuals means existence of individuals which is directly linked up with world history. Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence. (Marx 18456:n.p). It will be easy to identify much of the word-play and sophisms with other Utopians (Sade and Owen included) day-dreaming about “premises now in existence” triggering “universal...all at once...simultaneous” developments “directly linked to world history” and foretelling of ages to come when everything will be so different and a born again class of former pariahs (the “last and meek” according to Christian eschatology; proletarians; Aryans of the 1000 years Reich...) will finally have its own way living fantasy lives full of amusement and selfactualization after trampling its arch-enemies under its feet. In fact, both Owen and Sade push their 'system' under the threat of impeding upheaval should implementation suffer further delay. Readers can easily see how the same rhetoric and elation perfectly suits any 7
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY group taking the time to minimally interpolate the core narrative; in fact, Marx's only defense is claiming his fantasy to be unlike any other, but real and based on 'science': exactly what any other Utopian had claimed before him.
Furthermore, many core precepts and attitudes from both Sade and Owen return in the trendiest and most modern forms of 'postmodern' advocacy, reformism and policy making that the most popular “multifarious social quacks” ii (Marx 1848:38), hacks and social alchemists propose as remedy for all social ills and as landmarks towards the best of all worlds. Readers may remark the pervasive presence of the pathetic and melodramatic register so typical of Sade and Owen. “Distinguished professor of law” Anderson iii (n.d:17) in fact comments:
The similarities in the development of child labor and animal welfare reform indicate that it is possible to construct a model of how protection for powerless groups is achieved in our society. While the impetus for reform may be moral and the development of a new ethic is crucial, the progress of reform depends on a number of other elements, including the development of an array of symbolic and structural resources. Social scientists and reformers alike can learn much from the study of this history. As implausible as it might sound, it is most likely in our days to hear in posh and polite company -as the pinnacle of social alchemy and respectable attitude- the same sophisms that once came from a lunatic pornographer and inmate of less than reassuring past demeanor, or 8
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY from a once accomplished industrialist who
[Owen] wrote his autobiography at age 86, where he remarks that he was communicating (in seances) with the spirits of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and the late Duke of Kent -...- where they all discussed ways to reform the world and to unite the population as one family. The end of his life was taken up with Millennium ideas, not in the specific Christian sense, but rather something like the brotherhood of humankind, with you know who as its prophet, a strangely religious idea from this lifelong atheist. (Bloom 2003:281). The use of the word “sophism” directs in fact to Sophists, ancient philosophers specialized in offering their 'bankable' skills for hire. Sophists typically embraced a very situational view that made no room for absolute truth or established versions: every argument could indifferently be defended and/or debunked (antinomies). To put this 'flexibility' to test and to show his ability, famed Gorgias (n.d) wrote an Encomium of Helen to vindicate the sort of Helen of Troy turning the received persona of the accursed adulteress -whose profligacy had wrought so much harm on the Greek world- into a basically unaccountable victim succumbing to overwhelming forcesiv; the effect might have been similar back then to his method being applied today to handle the most guarded, accredited version of momentous events (for example WWII). The reason to look at such strategy of persuasion as sophisms is that it can indifferently be applied to anything (or by anyone) in order to (hopefully) trigger momentous knee-jerk altruistic elation, “ an orgy of compassion “ (Dolan 1986:315 v), indignation, self-loathing and so forth, irrespective of the real intensity and/or urgency of the 9
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY situation at hand. The denunciation of the misdeeds of the rabid henchmen of some hatefilled arch-dictator; feminists denouncing the misdeeds of oppressive phallocracy; gay/queer vi spokespeople denouncing the misdeeds of homophobia; Africans denouncing the misdeeds of slavery -each category with its never ending legion of martyrs who are the living proof readers should be terribly ashamed of themselves-, all share similar (if not identical) emotive motifs and clichés. All gut-wrenching speeches could serve indifferently any cause with minor interpolations; it is very common today to devalue the importance of certain historical, factual events by continuously referring to the faintest (or purely imagined) threat to the salad bar of postmodern sensibilité in terms suited for those historical events; to give one example, it is common to refer to certain immigration policies as “racial laws” leading to “extermination camps”. In one instance, Anderson (n.d:8) denounces the same reactionary forces of evil Owen and Sade were obsessed with: “Interestingly, in response to cries for reform, corporate agriculture raises the same basic defenses to government intervention as industrialists did in the 19 th century.”; later, he (ibid:13) mourns thus the martyrs of another postmodern 'atrocity' (or “genocide” in the word suited for left-wing press used to improper and hasty comparisons):
And sometimes, progress was made only when disaster strikes. A prominent example was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, which killed 146 employees, mostly young girls, and brought the deplorable working conditions of the garment district to the public view. -...- In the animal welfare context, there has not been a 10
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY similar “triggering event” to capture the attention of the public. There have been confinement operation catastrophes, in which hundreds of animals have been killed. In June 2005, 512 pigs died in a Virginia confinement operation due to a ventilation failure; on April 14, 2008, over 800 hogs died in an Iowa hog lot fire. These tragedies did not cause a ripple of public concern, despite the fact that they resulted from an industrial form of animal confinement in which human contact is largely absent. (emphasis added). In another instance, Anderson (n.d:8) claims:
While it is easy to romanticize the living conditions of animals on traditional family farms, the industrialization of agriculture has resulted in increasingly inhumane treatment, which of course varies considerably by producer. The practices most often criticized include the confinement of pigs in windowless buildings with concrete or slatted floors, thereby totally depriving them of access to the natural environment, in pens so small that they can’t move about (especially true of gestation crates used for pregnant sows). Similarly, chickens are kept their entire lives crowded together in small cages, unable to forage for food or engage in other natural behavior. Many operators de-beak the chickens, which tend to peck each other in response to these abusive conditions. -...- The picture of the child laborer whose humanity was sacrificed to the needs of the industry is very similar to the picture of the average animal in industrial agriculture , which has become no more than an “input” in the production process. (emphasis added).
Both Owen and Sade recur to these same stratagems to persuade the reader to agree with them; after all, theirs was the golden age of reforms: Utopia's bequeathal to contemporary policy making and philosophy is still in mint condition, as today's mediocre
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570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY imitators of Owen and Sade show. Utopia's 'nowheres' are present in equal terms in works vii such as Gulliver's Travels and Leviathan, don Quixote and Le Contrat Social, perhaps disguised as accounts of journeys to unknown lands inhabited by bizarre beings living very alternative lifestyles in very alternative societies. Alternatively, readers may be offered visions, dreams etc much as Parmenides had done, when he had credited his philosophy to the result of an ecstatic journey to meet the gods; Harrington's utopia Seven Models (1658) was taken into account while drafting the constitution of Carolina, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Furthermore, in Sade's and Owen's times, 'nowheres' were becoming 'somewheres' while pioneers colonized vast territories where reality seemed to come from a fictitious 'nowhere': impervious ravines, deserts, prairies, towering mountains inhabited by meek or hostile 'savages', ensuing gunfights, founding of new cities, Lynch and Jim Crow's laws.
As a matter of fact, Sade and Owen are here considered mostly as andragogists; in the texts considered, both endorse a mild, non-violent andragogy based on empathy viii and altruism; both also suggest that families step aside and let third parties (communities, the State) take care of children's education ix. A self-contained digressionx in Sade's didactic, nonobscene novel Aline et Valcour (1795) and Owen's A New View of Society (1816) will be considered for their explicit value as manifesto: the topic at hand is andragogy rather than just education, which involves considerations on the kind of society they wanted to build. In fact, this study does not specifically examine the role of Sade and Owen as political 12
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY philosophers or opinion leaders, but a statement is in order: their legacy continues today in the most 'postmodern' and grotesque ways. Readers are advised to always keep in mind that Sade was mostly just a lunatic inmate who endlessly (re-)wrote his obscene novels, whereas Owen was a reformer/industrialist of socialist xi persuasion who founded townships and Utopian communitiesxii and who lobbied at and influenced xiii the highest levels of British society. That explains why captive Sade could 'tell it as he saw it', while Owen had to be cautious, not to disquiet the very people whose help and sympathy he so badly tried to secure; much later in life, Owen (no longer trying to appeal to the largest possible number of influent people at all times), became more radical (Bloom 2003:5), adding strong anticapitalist undertones to his existing critique of the established order xiv, thus meeting Sade even further. Sade did in fact champion physiocratiexv against mercantilisme and harshly criticized the raising world of finance; 'divine' Zamé is in fact hailed as ami des hommes, the nickname of Victor de Mirabeau, keynote physiocratic author. Of course, Sade's critique of
financiers has all to do with the traditional opposition between noblesse de robe and noblesse d'épée (to which he belonged). Robe (a class of civil servants basically owning their position through purchase or periodical payments to the Crown ) in fact found its antecedents among wealthy commoners and financiers and was engaged in a bitter battle for ultimate political control against both Crown and traditional nobility. It is thus inappropriate to talk of “anti capitalism” when discussing Sade, although the written rhetoric sounds like it. Finally, both blamed existing social ills on the shortcomings of the actual society and political regimes that 13
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY -to add insult to injury- responded to their own misdeeds with repressive laws, thus inflicting more damage.
It is difficult to imagine two thinkers, whom critics and analysts interpreted in the most diverse and often opposed ways. In Encyclopaedia Britannica (Burton 1854:3-4xvi) readers actually find that “The name of Robert Owen stands supreme as the prophet and champion of British communism.” (Burton 1854:36) along with a description of the similarities among the various socialist or communist systems xvii; furthermore, Altfest (1977:37) writes ”Frederick Engels -...- ascribed the origins of social reform in Great Britain to Owen's efforts”xviii. This did not prevent Isaiah Berlin from considering Owen a dubious figure on the service of bourgeoisie xix, while U.S Supreme Court judge Cardozo xx had very uncomplimentary words for Owen and his “communism”, which can be readily extended to Sade and his Utopian speculations:
But years now have passed since Owen lived; the second New Harmony has not yet been seen; the so-called rational system of education has not yet transformed the impulses or the aims of men; and the communist of today, with a history of two thousand years of failure behind him, in the same pathetic confidence still looks for the realization of his dreams to the communism of the future. -...- The builders have appealed to a future that has no warrant in the past; and fixing their gaze upon the distant dreamland, captivated by the vision there beheld, entranced by its ideal effulgence, their eyes were blinded to the real conditions of the human problem they had set before them. (Cardozo 1889:3-6xxi).
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570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY Owen is also considered at times a revolutionary (Miliband 1954:233 xxii) or a communalist (Rexroth 1974).
Sade enjoyed very varied press as well. From 'leader of democratic SS' and philosophical epitome of the excess of the French Revolution for some (Kuehnelt-Leddihn 2000 ), he becomes for others the antecedent of NSDAP xxiii (Roche 2003 ). From an epicurean (Manfredi 1986) he becomes a cynic ( Kalouche 2001; Shea 2006); again, from a proponent of bourgeois, capitalist values (Goulemot in Colloque d'Aix; Tirelli Rocca 1980; Fink 1980 ), he becomes a proponent of aristocratic values (Coward 2000 xxiv; Tumminelli 1998:120xxv) and finally a far-left wing archetypal subversive ( Tel Quel 1967) and a leader showing feminists (Carter 1979:132-133) “the possibility of a world in which the concept of taboo is meaningless and pornography itself would cease to exist.”xxvi, opening the realm of pleasure to self-actualizing women. More correctly, some critics (McMorran 2007:n.p) finally suggest not “to create an implied author without any interference” from the text alone, while others (Coward 2000; Clack 2001; Margolin 1967 ) denounce how swiftly some scholars with selfserving agendas tend to appropriate Sade to support particular viewpoints.
Although this study focuses on the similarities, it should not be inferred that Sade and Owen share perfectly identical ideas. Unlike Sade, Owen favored commerce -however 'corrected'xxvii according to his principlesxxviii- and -like Sade- he was ambivalent about 15
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY progress, seeing both harmxxix and good in it. For example, Owen criticized commerce as a fast way towards immediate pecuniary gain and the mounting thirst for luxuries (a staple of Sade's rhetoric) as social ills; both argued that “creating a perfectly harmonious community requires isolation, extremely long and hard work on the part of the inhabitants, and a ‘strict regime’” (Goldstone 2008:5)xxx. Sade thinks passions and instincts dominate mankind as a result of the mechanical nature of the human body; Owen, too, thinks of men as 'mechanisms'xxxi, but thinks they are rather anodyne as well. It must be emphasized how penology, too, seemed to drift towards materialism:”By about 1760, there were many advanced thinkers who already saw behaviour from a standpoint at once atheist, materialist and determinist.” (Jenkins 1984:113), in order to deal with ineffectuality:”By the 1750s, Enlightenment thought had advanced to the point at which scholars almost despaired of finding a firm and rational basis on which to justify virtue or obedience to law.” (Ibid.).
Both Sade and Owen think character is not innate, but formed for men by forces outside their control: society for Owen; society and the mechanical and corpuscular nature of man for Sade. Owen argued in terms of both altruism, idealism (Fowler 1961 xxxii) and the skilled industrialist's conviction that better conditions for the workforce meant over time greater profits for him, which over time ought to supersede losses. Sade -on the other handmerely argued as a captive obsessed with talking or writing in order to: “give way to an orgy of compassion that would sweep those like him out of their cells.” (Dolan 1986:315). While it 16
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY is essentially correct to infer that both Sade and Owen argue as 'altruists', some (notably Garagnon 1983 ) have rightfully emphasized how sensibilitéxxxiii plays a major role in Sade's non-obscene works. In other words, the moral compass of sensible people is chiefly oriented towards what the impact of one's actions on others might be. In the novel, Léontine is a typical example: the heroine (“[elle] n'avait pour guide, que sa raison et son devoir” Sade 1795-1:1205) of the self-contained digression Les délires de l'amour, Nouvelle Espagnole (Sade 1795-1:1201ss) rebuffs dom Juan's inspirited and passionate plea to elope in their (presumably) incestuous relationship on the ground of her sensibilité towards her father (Sade 1795-1:1215ss); the infinite variations of the pathetic register are also present.
Owen argues on the basis of his concrete experience -although inconclusive for some (Mardiros 1948:342xxxiv)-, whereas Sade offers his readers an Utopian escapade to an imaginary island in the Southern Seas, epitome of 'radical cultural pluralism' Sade typically dabbled in. Léonore and Sainville are two young and self-assertive aristocrats who defy conventions running away together to escape arranged marriages. In Venice, libertine Fallieri kidnaps pubescent Léonore; a series of peregrinations and cathartic misfortunes befalls both Léonorexxxv and pursuing Sainville. While Owen mostly argues from premises that today's readers would call progressive (democratic xxxvi, or the many names former social-communist movements go by these days )- in a long lived thread linking Owen to -say- Blair (Donnachie 2007xxxvii)-, Sade is more concerned with his theory claiming that peregrinations and 17
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY misfortunes are the only way to grasp what life is all about xxxviii, at the mercy of an 'invisible hand' that goes by the name of nature, providence xxxix, fate or all of themxl, under the merciless gaze of unconcerned heavens, in a universe whose only ethics is highly situational.
A staple of Sade's and Owen's rhetoric is also the motif of the sacred mission they are in, to defeat the forces of superstition and darkness that will resist the 'universally good' changes they advocate at any cost xli, blessed to live in an era that witnesses the tidal wave of reasonxlii drinking unreason: how could people not accept their most fantastic system as selfevident and universally suitable? Knowing both dabbled in prophecies, this attitude is not surprising at all. Of course their array of bogeymen slightly varied: while Owen is definitely closer to contemporary left-wing advocacy, Sade includes the Inquisition, noblesse de robe etc: eighteenth century scarecrows. This attitude entails summary consideration and dismissal of any objection as coming from either people of ill will bent on securing their immoral privilegesxliii, or ignorants who don't know what they are missing. Violently irreligious Sade (or spiritualist Owen) is also known for sympathizing with the Bible, when its words suit his expedient needs.
First, visitors marooned in TamoĂŠ (an island in the Southern Seas they discover in pursuit of Cook ) meet peaceful and jolly natives xliv, then they are escorted to their capital city, which conforms to the stereotype of Utopia's 'new cities' xlv and that finds a parallel in 18
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY Owen's plans (Altfest 1977:31xlvi) to shape his communities according to the same “geometrical feeling”xlvii: regularity, abundance and geometry are always associated with Utopia. When Sainville meets the island's ruler, Zamé, his elation knows no bounds xlviii and he thinks of a “golden age”. When readers learn that this harbinger of golden ages is 'biracial' ( the son of an enlightened French visitor xlix and of a native woman ), they are not reading enthused left-wing press from 2008, but still Utopian fiction from 1795. Much as a 2008 article would emphasize, everything about Zamé is fantastic: his physical shape, demeanor l and his superior intellectli. Of course what is most fantastic about Zamé are his plans for a 'new society'; Zamé wastes no time and instructs his guests about how 'different' things are under his control:
et vous êtes tout surpris qu'à l'exemple de vos Souverains d'Europe, je ne fasse pas consister ma grandeur dans la morgue et dans le silence; et savez-vous pourquoi je ne leur ressemble point, c'est qu'ils ne savent qu'être Roi, et que j'ai appris à être homme. -...voilà comme ils [ Europeans ] sont avec leurs chefs, ils les respectent au lieu de les aimer. -...- j'y [at Zamé's place] ai quelquefois reçu des amis, je n'y ai jamais vu de courtisans. (Sade 1795-3:n.p).
Altruism and sensibilité appear as soon as Zamé speaks:
mais je suis fâché qu'il [Sainville] vous [Zamé's wife] apprenne qu'une des modes de son pays soit de remercier le bienfaiteur, comme si ce n'était pas celui qui oblige qui dût rendre grâce à l'autre. -...- je vous convaincrai que celui que vous en [Tamoé's citizens] croyez le souverain n'en est que le législateur et l'ami ”(Sade 1795-3:n.p).
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570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY Now, what is the formula both Owen and Sade favour? The role of an allencompassing nanny and welfare State that will both protect people against themselves and help them cross over to the promised land of eternal abundance and relaxation in exchange for a 'modest' surrender of individual rights and initiative:
The sea, it may be remarked also, affords an inexhaustible source of food. It may then be safely asserted that the population of the world may be allowed naturally to increase for many thousand years; and yet, under a system of government founded on the principles for the truth of which we contend, the whole may continue to live in abundance and happiness, without one check of vice or misery; and under the guidance of these principles, human labour, properly directed, may be made far more than sufficient to enable the population of the world to live in the highest state of human enjoyment. (Owen 1816:n.plii). The State will ultimately have to cross the border between the duties of a provider (welfare) and those of a nanny, because the then actual society is incapable of overcoming social ills. The ultimate picture looks more like the ( economically before than politically ) bankrupt experiment of Social-Communist countries in action than the cardboard cut-out lost paradises of Utopia. Critics still debate whether Owen intended to 'just improve' society, or whether he was a closeted revolutionary waiting to come out; there is no doubt Sade wished for a complete palingenesis, though. Owen intuitively anticipated the real-life initiative of
ateliers sociaux arguing that the omnipotent State ought to provide employment for all:
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570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY It would, perhaps, prove an interesting calculation, and useful to government, to estimate how much its finances would be improved, by giving proper employment to a million of its subjects, rather than by supporting that million in ignorance, idleness and crime. (Owen 1816:n.pliii)liv. Brainchildren of the French Revolution in 1848 (under the spell of sloganeers and left-wing maximalists such as Blanqui ) were Atelier Sociaux: State initiatives to employ people in various activities. Much as some may want to blame their failure onto the incorrect application of the otherwise correct idea Blanc devised (axed around the free and spontaneous auto-organization of workers), Ateliers Sociaux were a failure, both opening and closing in 1848. Naturally, it is paramount to emphasize how Owen's wish for this nanny and welfare State was purely theoretical, since his concrete realizations were limited to his townships. Tamoé's economy follows a rigidly planned scheme within the greater scheme of the State:”L'État est seul possesseur de tous les biens, les sujets ne sont qu'usufruitiers; ” (Sade 1795-3:n.p) on the backdrop of communist philosophy:”l'impossibilité d'avoir plus que son voisin, anéantit absolument ce vice destructeur de toutes les Nations de l'Europe ” (Ibid.); such arguments may be found in Owen as well lv, for example in the plea for progressive taxation to meet the ever increasing needs of the wished for welfare state (Altfest 1977:36). Training according to one's natural inclinations is a priority for Zamé lvi and a wish for Owen, for both consider human labor the true measure of all things, thus innocently anticipating self-important Marxist claims of later periods. Furthermore, the critique of luxury - a staple
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570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY of Sadean rhetoriclvii- finds echo in Owen as well: Tamoé's citizens all dress alike lviii. Much as Owen was accused of advocating 'alternative views' on marriage lix, Zamé made divorce the law of his land.
Other staples of Sade's and Owen's are: compulsory public education lx and military servicelxi (for strictly defensive purposes only lxii). Both curiously anticipate the concept of nation in arms raising naturally as one to defend the best of all governments lxiii; again, Owen is very close to contemporary statism, whereas Sade perverts the legacy of the Spartan ideal. The result, however, is identical: society (in the case of education: families ) is too corrupt and insufficiently prepared to ever hope to administer correctly such vital aspects alone. In a way similar to Owen's, Zamé introduced some form of anodyne religion lxiv doing away with superstition to encourage basic virtues, cooperation and brotherhood. Surprisingly similar is the way Owen and Sade deal with crime, using established opinion and ridicule lxv as driving forces behind a non-violent approach based on empathy, in order to eradicate most crimes:
je me servis de l'opinion, vous le savez, c'est la reine du monde; je semai du dégoût sur -...- ces vices, je [les] couvris -...- de ridicules, vingt ans les ont anéantis, je les perpétuais si je me fusse servi de prisons ou de bourreaux. -...-.Nos punitions ne consistent ici que dans l'opinion établie: -...-; je les humilie lorsqu'ils font mal: quand un Citoyen a commis une faute grave, il se promène dans toutes les rues entre deux crieurs publics, qui annoncent à haute voix le forfait dont il s'est souillé; -...-A l'égard des crimes moraux, -...- les coupables -...- sont punis par une marque dans les habillemens (Sade 1795-3:n.p). 22
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY I was greatly averse to punishments, -...- I invented what the people soon called a telegraph. This consisted of a four-sided piece of wood -...- and one broad, each side coloured - one side black, another blue, the third yellow, and the fourth white, tapered at the top, and finished with wire eyes, to hang upon a hook with either side to the front. One of these was suspended in a conspicious place near to each of the persons employed, and the colour at the front told the conduct of the individual during the preceding day, to four degrees by comparison. Bad, denoted by black, indifferent by blue, good by yellow and excellent by white. This was the preventer of punishment. There was no beating - no abusive language. I passed daily through all the rooms, and the workers observed me always to look at these telegraphs - and when black I merely looked at the person and then at the colour - but never said a word to one of them by way of blame. (Owen,cited in Morton 1969:98). As of now it seems that Sade's and Owen's plans can only have positive effects. However, how is this all-powerful nanny and welfare State going to regulate the chaotic ebb and flow of human minds and passions? The answer is: absolute control. Behind the batting eyelashes of the friendly and inspirited reformer whose gums bleed for humanity and who can't help people enough, lurks the shadow of secret police, omnipresent cameras, fingerprint identification, biometric passports, and other gadgets today's readers are well used to. Once absolute control is in place, the use it is put to is left to the sole discretion of people who made a job out of (mis)leading opinion whichever direction they see fit, which allows to see in a completely different light the innocent (or even wholesome) pursuits of Owen and ZamĂŠ.
Visitors to New Lanark commented on the cleanliness of the village, something
23
unusual in those unwashed
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY times, but Owen had a plan for this. He invited the women housekeepers to open up their homes voluntarily for cleanliness inspection in exchange for prizes; at first, the women balked for whatever reasons, but some succumbed and received prizes. Soon, everyone was “voluntarily” opening their doors to inspection, and so, a clean village. (Bloom 2003:278). According to a report from a visitor to the site in 1833, in addition to these methods Owen’s system was implemented and policed by ‘a constant system of beatings’ There were also ‘random searches of workers’, summary dismissals ‘for being absent without permission’, fines for drunkenness, a 10.30pm curfew, and periodical inspections of the lodgings by Owen’s ‘military police’(in Donnachie 2000,80-2). -...- Almost every aspect of life in New Lanark was monitored and controlled, and Owen’s vision was meticulously enforced. With these methods, Owen set about reforming the closed-community.” (Goldstone 2008:5-6). Control includes not only surveillance, but also socialization: “Owen also created a number of community recreations, such as regular dances, partly for the fun of it, but partly as diversion against less wholesome pursuits.” (Bloom 2003:277). Zamé as well has disciplined the way his subjects entertain themselves; the similarity with the ritualized control of Fascist and Communist regimes is obvious:
Nous bannissons tous ceux de luxe, me répondit ce philosophe, nous ne tolérons absolument ici que l'art utile au citoyen, l'agriculture, l'habillement, l'architecture et le militaire, voilà les seuls. J'ai proscrit absolument tous les autres, excepté quelques uns d'amusemens dont j'aurai peut-être occasion de vous faire voir les effets; ce n'est pas que je ne les aime tous, et que je ne les cultive dans mon particulier même encore quelque fois; mais je n'y donne que mes instans de repos -...-. Zamé ne leur avait donné aucune notion de la nôtre: je crains, me dit-il, que la musique ne soit plus faite pour amollir et corrompre l'âme, que pour l'élever, et nous 24
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY évitons avec soin ici tout ce qui peut énerver les moeurs; je leur ai trouvé ces instrumens, je les leur laisse; je n'innoverai rien sur cette partie. (Sade 1795-3:n.p). Isolation turns out to be essential, in spite of the fact both Owen and Sade were convinced theirs is the best system ever devised, and people would die to preserve it, if they only had the chance to experience it. Owen chose remote locations for his townships; following his father's advice, Zamé wanted to avoid contact with outside civilizations, which could only threaten, corrupt (or both) the peaceful equilibrium based on innocent enjoyment of abundant supplies under the watchful, omnipresent public eye. Much as SocialCommunist regimes and their foes equated travel and exchanges with enemy countries with threat and corruption, so do Owen and Sade. Ultimately -much as Social-Communist regimes- they may think that one day isolation will no longer be necessary, once the everexpanding protection and bonanza their systems afford will have enveloped the entire planet: man is prone to error, poorly instructed and might -against his conscious will and his interest- sin against the disinterested welfare and nanny regime that only wants what is good for mankind and is ready to give mankind so much for taking so little, namely concessions of individual freedom and initiative that the reformer will always perceive as reasonable and moderate. After all, the obsession with control goes back to the very roots of (Utopian) reformism, for the mind of the social alchemist -in his quest after the 'stone of the social philosopher' able to turn the lead of human inadequacy into the gold of the 'new society'- is
25
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY the only free agent. While Owen tries to seduce the ruling classes detailing the fortune they could amass by adopting his system, Sade is able to attach a definite price tag to his Utopia: Sainville sails from Tamoé with seven millions livres worth of gold ingot that Zamé so disinterestedly gives him as a farewell present; in order for readers not to miss the point, Sainville exclaims:”me voilà le plus riche particulier de l'Europe! ”[here I am the wealthiest man in Europe!] (Sade 1795-3:n.p).
This essay attempted an unusual comparison between the 'systems' of Sade and Robert Owen: a nobleman turned serial pornographer who spent most of his adult life in prison, and a successful industrialist and reformer able to influence the highest levels of British society. The choice has been to place Owen's and Sade's plea for a 'new society' within the immemorial tradition of (Utopian) reformism that is still very alive today. Utopian reformism's postmodern incarnation is examined in the example of an article – written by a “distinguished law professor”- that explicitly compares the plight of the neglected juvenile workforce Owen tried to relieve, with the plight of pigs and hens in modern farms. That is an occasion to identify the strategy of persuasion as an all-purpose sophism whose main goal is to trigger knee-jerks reactions, irrespective of the situation at hand. For their value as a manifesto, a self-contained digression in Sade's novel Aline et Valcour (1795) and Owen's A
New View of Society (1816) have been chosen for this comparison that summarily details differences and important convergences. Both Owen's real-life experience and Sade's 26
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY imaginary Utopia in the Southern Seas want to show mankind how it is possible to cross over to the land of plenty and self-fulfillment. Both Owen and Sade think that isolation is the best environment for their 'systems' to develop, which in turn are based on a non-violent, altruist ethos administered by a disinterested welfare and nanny State that will need to exert total control over his subjects. While Owen had to be cautious in order not to disquiet the very people whose help and sympathy he so badly needed, prisoner Sade could freely identify a communist society where 'divine and biracial' messiah ZamĂŠ abolished inequalities, social ills and private property; he furthermore disciplined his island's culture in complete isolation, for the eventual contact with foreign civilizations is seen as harbinger of both threats and corruption. Compulsory public education and military service were also introduced, for merely defensive purposes; in the case of education, society is too corrupt and least prepared to administer it. History, however, has shown that when control is in place, all is left to the discretion of the few, with consequences at variance with the meek, harmless and purely theoretical world of the nice reformer who just can't help people enough.
I certify that this ISM is my own unaided work, that any work or material included in it which is not my own has been identified and that it conforms to the word limits. The word count is 4362, end notes, indented citations, declaration and title excluded.
27
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY BIBLIOGRAPHY Altfest, K.C., 1977, Robert Owen as Educator, Boston, Twayne. Anderson, J.L.,n.d., The Political Economy of Protection for URL:http://lodel.ehess.fr/crh/docannexe.php?id=962 (accessed 12 March 2009).
the
Powerless,
Berlin, I.,n.d, Karl Marx, URL:http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/published_works/km/uncut/ (accessed 1 February 2009). Bloom, M., 2003, 'Primary prevention and education', The Journal of Primary Prevention, 23:3, 275-281. Briggs, R., 2008, '�The sole object of my efforts is to do you good�', Decimononica, 5:1, 1-20. Brooke, C., 1998, The Political Science of Karl Marx, URL:http://users.ox.ac.uk/~magd1368/archive/gov98f1/utopians.htm (accessed 1 February 2009). Burton, J.H., 1854, 'Communism', in Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eight Edition, URL:http://www.archive.org/download/communismfromeig00burt/communismfromeig00burt.pdf (accessed 12 February 2009). Cardozo, B., 1889, The Altruist in Politics, URL: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1341 (accessed 12 February 2009). [hailed by some as first Jewish-American to serve in superior courts and famous for his landmark rulings. Later U.S Supreme Court judge. ]. Carlton, F.T., 1910, 'Robert Owen', The School Review, 18:3, 186-91. Carter, A., 1979, The Sadeian Woman, London, Virago. Clack, B., 2001, 'Sade', Literature & theology, vol. 15, n.3, pp. 262-275.
Colloque d'Aix-en-Provence sur le Marquis de Sade en 1966, 1968, Paris, Colin. Coward, D., 2000, ' Down with Sade ', Paragraph, vol.23, n.1, HTML copy, Literary Reference Center, accessed 3 March 2008. Dolan, J.C., 1986, ' Source and strategy in Sade ', French Forum, vol.11, n.3, pp.301-316. Donnachie, I. & Mooney, G., 2007, 'From Owenite Socialism to Blairite social-ism', Critique, 35:2, 275-291. 28
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY Favre, P., 1967, Sade Utopiste, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France. Fink, B., 1980, 'Narrative techniques and utopian structures in Sade's Aline et Valcour ', Science Fiction Studies, vol. 7, n.20, pp.73-79. Fowler, W.S., 1961, 'The Influence of Idealism upon State Provision of Education ', Victorian Studies, 4:4, 337-344. Garagnon, J., 1983, ' La sensibilité comme idéologie de substitution de la noblesse dans Aline et Valcour ', Studies on Voltaire and the XVIII century, 216:174-177. Goldstone, A., 2008, 'Freedom in a determined world', URL:http://www.polsis.uq.edu.au/apsa2008/Refereed-papers/Goldstone.pdf (Accessed 10 March 2009). Gorer, G., 1934, The revolutionary ideas of marquis de Sade , http://www.archive.org/details/revolutionaryide029234mbp , (accessed 21 February 2008).
URL
Gorgias, n.d, Encomium of Helen, URL: http://www.phil.vt.edu/MGifford/phil2115/Helen.htm (Accessed 10 March 2009). Jones, L., 1890, The Life, Times and Labours of Robert Owen , 2 volumes, London, Swan Sonnenschein. Haney, L.H., 1911, History of Economic Thought, Toronto, MacMillian. Hayes, J., 1989, 'Aristocrate ou démocrate?', Eighteenth-Century Studies, 23:1, 24-41. Ilie, P., 1984, 'Polymorphosis in Sade', Symposium, 38:1, 3-12. Jenkins, P., 1984, 'Varieties of Enlightenment Criminology', British Journal of Criminology , 24:2, 112-130. Kalouche, F., 2001, “Ethics of destruction”, Ph.D thesis, State university of New York at Binghamton.
La Pensée de Sade, 1967, Tel Quel, n.28. Lanni,
D.,
2004,
Roman
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philosophie 29
au
crépuscule
des
Lumières ,
URL:
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY http://africultures.com/index.asp?menu=affiche_article&no=4039 (accessed 3 March 2008 ). Manfredi, P., 1986, “L'art de la subversion dans Aline et Valcour”, Ph.D thesis, University of California, Irvine. Mardiros, A.M., 1948, 'Can we plan for social progress?', Mind, 57:227, 341-349. Margolin, J.C.,1967, 'Lectures de Sade', Etudes Françaises, vol.3, n.4, pp.410-413. Marx, K., 1845-6, The German Ideology, URL: http://www.english.ilstu.edu/strickland/495/etexts/german2b.html (accessed 10 February 2009). Marx, K. & Engels, F., 1848, Manifesto of the Communist Party , URL: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/manifest.pdf, (accessed 1 Fenruary 2009). Maxton, J., 1933, Lenin, URL: http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/maxlen/ (accessed 1 February 2009). Miliband, R., 1954, 'The Politics of Robert Owen', Journal of the History of Ideas, 15:2, 233:245. Morton, A.L., 1969, The Life and Ideas of Robert Owen, New York, International Publishers. Noyes, J.H., 1931, The Putney Community, URL:http://library.syr.edu/digital/collections/j/JohnHumphreyNoyes,ThePutneyCommunity/chap1 9.htm (accessed 10 February 2009). O'Hagan, F.J., 2007, Robert Owen and the Development of Good Citizenship in 19th Century New Lanark, URL:http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/3801/1/FOH_Enlighten_Robert_Owen_Chapter.pdf (Accessed 1 February 2009). Owen, R., 1816, A New View of http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/owen/#new-view 2009).
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URL: February
Owen, R.D., 1824, An Outline of the System of Education at New Lanark , Glasgow, Wardlaw&Cunningham. [Robert Dale Owen is Robert Owen's son, U.S. Citizen, social activist and congressman ]. Reuland, C.P., 2003, Des moulins pour des géants, Ph.D thesis, Johns Hopkins university. Rexroth, K., 1974, Communalism, URL: http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/communalism.htm 30
570037554 SERGIO ZENERE ISM Level 2 (LLM2021) ESSAY (accessed 1 February 2009). Roberts, A., 2001, Lectures on the History of Social Sciences from Ancient Greece to the 20 th Century, URL: http://www.mdx.ac.uk/WWW/STUDY/lecSHE.htm (accessed 1 March 2009). Roche, G., 2003, Sade et le génocide, URL:http://www.scribd.com/doc/4324833/Sade-et-leGenocide- (accessed 1 February 2009). Sade, D.A.F., Marquis de, 1795, Aline et Valcour, ou le roman philosophique , URL: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k101940m (accessed 12 Juli 2008 ). Sade, D.A.F., Marquis de, 1795, Aline et Valcour, ou le roman philosophique, 1994 edition, Librairie Générale Française, Paris. Sade, D.A.F., Marquis de, 1795, Aline URL:http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/17707
et
Valcour,
ou
le
roman
philosophique ,
Sade, D.A.F., Marquis de, 1800, Une idée sur les romans, URL: http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Sade (accessed 12 February 2008 ).
Sade et le grand guignol, 1998, Europe, 76:835-836. Sauvage, E., 2006, ' Sade et l'exotisme africain ', Etudes Littéraires, vol.37, n.3, pp.97-116. Serna, P., 1989, 'Sade et Mirabeau devant la Révolution Française', Politix, 2:6, 75-79. Shea, L., 2006, 'Sade and the cynic tradition', Modern Language Quarterly, vol.67, n.3, pp.313-331. Terasse, J., 1989, 'Sade', Etudes Françaises, vol.25, n.2-3, pp.41-52, HTML copy. Tirelli Rocca, M., 1980, Sade: le problème du mal dans Aline et Valcour, Ph.D thesis, University of California, Los Angeles. Tumminelli, R., 1998, Il dominio e la rivolta, Roma, Selene. Von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, E., 2000, 'Monarchy and War', Journal of Libertarian Studies, 15:1, 1-41.
WORD COUNT: 987
31
“Sade was released from Charenton and became known as “Citizen Brutus Sade,” commander of a Section des Piques (some sort of democratic SS). Sade was a very active revolutionary who boasted of the role he had played in the fall of the Bastille. It is no wonder that he became a cult figure to the students in 1968.” (Ibid.) ii “ [Owen] was less of an idealist than Saint-Simon and Fourier. He was somewhat more practical in his methods, but altogether unhistorical in spirit.” (Haney 1911:333). iii The limited scope of this essay will allow to consider only Anderson's article as representing -however imperfectlyan entire category of 'postmodern' applications of the concept of protection of the powerless. The professional title is emphasized to remark the line of thought does not come from some offhand, third rate ale house reformist, but from the very top of today's accredited academic establishment. The subject, the tone, the rhetoric and the author's eminent status also support the choice. iv “How then can one blame of Helen as unjust, since she is utterly acquitted of all charge, whether she did what she did through falling in love or persuaded by speech or ravished by force or constrained by divine constraint? I have by means of speech removed disgrace from a woman; I have observed the procedure which I set up at the beginning of the speech; I have tried to end the injustice of blame and the ignorance of opinion; I wished to write a speech which would be a praise of Helen and a diversion to myself. ” (Gorgias, n.d, n.p). v Referring to Sade. vi Queer theory goes beyond homosexuality and even details the repressive role that homosexual (gay/lesbian) thought exerts over people whose sexuality or gender identity is unconventional, yet do not fit the rigid homosexual paradigm. vii Dolan (1986:315) sharply disagrees regarding Sade:” he had no need to return to the great thinkers of the past, like Hobbes or Swift, and that to trace "influence" to such sources may reflect a basic misunderstanding of the situation facing a popular writer, whether in Sade's time or our own. It was prison, and the consequent disillusionment of his early progressive faith, which led Sade to look for gloomy pictures of the state of man; he had no need to be told that there were intellectual precedents for such a view.”. In turn, one might object that although real life's plight was -indeed- the prime mover of any such account, the fact that Sade and others chose some literary devices and configurations (for example the escapist travelogue ) clearly shows an indisputable filiation. viii “Either give the poor a rational and useful training, or mock not their ignorance, their poverty, and their misery, by merely instructing them to become conscious of the extent of the degradation under which they exist. And, therefore, in pity to suffering humanity, either keep the poor, if you now can, in the state of the most abject ignorance, as near as possible to animal life, or at once determine to form them into rational beings, into useful and effective members of the state.” (Owen 1816:http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/owen/ch04.htm ). ix “The child will be removed, so far as is at present practicable, from the erroneous treatment of the yet untrained and untaught parents.” (Owen 1816: http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/owen/ch03.htm ). x From the “letter XXXV”. xi “The Socialist and Communist systems, properly so called, those of Saint-Simon, Fourier, Owen, and others, spring into existence in the early undeveloped period, described above, of the struggle between proletariat and bourgeoisie “ (Marx 1848:28) and ““Home Colonies” were what Owen called his Communist model societies.” (Marx 1848:30, note 8). The difference between Marxist Socialism and Owen's is thus explained:”When we look at what Owen, Thompson and Wheeler meant by socialism, we find something that is rooted in a specific theory of society that is "utilitarian" in the sense that it is about human beings following their "interests". -...- Marx and Engels argued for a materialist interpretation of society and history. The idea that human societies change the material world in order to exist, was used as the key to explaining everything that humans do. ” (Roberts 2001:n.p). It shall be emphasized, though, that most thinkers believed their 'system' to be 'scientific' and rational, in spite of eccentricities that are present in Marx as well. Jones (1890 vol.II:64) states: “The advocates of Socialism were not violent men. They had pleged themselves by their public declarations against violence of every kind. They had made known, as widely as they could, and with the strongest emphasis, their firm conviction that the wrongs they condemned could not be rectified by disturbance of the peace.”. Miliband (1954:238) reports Owen's severe critique of revolutionary movements of 1848: “Owen was totally devoid of a later proletarian mystique. ” (Ibid.). “Owen's proposals differed from later socialist and communist programs in many ways. First, Owen was concerned not only with the economic i
xii
xiii
xiv
xv xvi
well-being of the laborers, but also with their morality, behavior, and intellect. Second, Owen first formulated his theories at a time when the working class had no real cohesiveness. He thought of himself as a benefactor of the poor and did not think in terms of class unity. Third, in Owen's time the concept of government being responsible for the welfare of its citizens had not yet been developed. Therefore his assertions that the government must find useful employment for the poor were viewed with suspicion. Since the government was not thought to be responsible for the welfare of its citizens, Owen did not believe that the government necessarily had to be involved in his schemes, but rather that his plans could be effected by any charitable group. Generally thought of as a utopian socialist, Owen had an idyllic vision of a peacefully changed world. He did not believe in revolution or radical organizations of any kind.” (Altfest 1977:37). “Yet, when it was written, we could not have called it a socialist manifesto. By Socialists, in 1847, were understood, on the one hand the adherents of the various Utopian systems: Owenites in England, Fourierists in France, both of them already reduced to the position of mere sects, and gradually dying out; on the other hand, the most multifarious social quacks who, by all manner of tinkering, professed to redress, without any danger to capital and profit, all sorts of social grievances, in both cases men outside the working-class movement, and looking rather to the "educated" classes for support.” (Marx 1848:38-39); “but have developed a particularly interesting critical perspective on a certain kind of socialist doctrine which Marx and Engels christened "Utopian Socialism". In particular, where many other kinds of socialism have been viewed as little more than a collection of errors of analysis and political strategy, Marx and Engels were excited to point to major anticipations of their own thought in the works of Robert Owen, Charles Fourier and Claude-Henri de Rouvroy Saint-Simon. ” (Brooke 1998:n.p). “Engels in turn had been in association with Robert Owen, who may be taken as the pioneer of the British working-class movement and is generally recognised as the founder of the Co-operative Society Movement which has grown from trivial beginnings to its present imposing dimensions.When Engels met Marx in Paris his outlook on social problems was mainly of the Owenite stamp, but the two men formed a life partnership which resulted in the formulation of a Socialist theory with a philosophic and scientific basis and with a revolutionary method and objective. “ (Maxton 1933:23-24) and “The first attempt to carry out the idea was made in September 1864, when the International Working Men's Association was founded in London by leaders of the workers living there. It adopted as its principles a statement written by Karl Marx entitled ' An Address to the Working Classes,' in preference to proposals put forward by the followers of Owen and others proposed by the disciples of Mazzini. ” (Maxton 1933:101).”Owen when he went to London delivered addresses in Exeter Hall, at which members of the royal family thought they were doing a public duty by attending ; and it was at one time rumoured that the Duke of Kent intended to give the princess who is now the queen of the British empire the benefit of instructions, in social science, by Robert Owen.” (Burton 1854:40). “In 1803 Owen became a member of the Committee of Management of the board representing the cotton industry and took an active part in seeking to alleviate the economic and social problems confronting the industry. In 1815 he called a meeting of Scottish manufacturers to consider asking the government to rescind the tax on cotton imports and to discuss the plight of children and older workers in the textile factories. At this time he advocated, in addition to tax abatement, several specific measures for the benefit of employees -...-. Nonetheless, undaunted by negative reactions to his ideas, Owen persisted until he prevailed upon Sir Robert Peel to sponsor a bill in Parliament for the relief of working children. That bill, a modified version of Owen's original proposals” (Altfest 1977:27-28). “When he began in 1813 to make his views public, he was solidly established as a wealthy factory owner. The reforms in education and factory conditions that he had introduced at New Lanark had given him a wide reputation as an enlightened and practical philanthropist. For the next few years he enjoyed the friendship and approbation of princes, prelates and ministers. ” (Miliband 1954:235). “The rapid accumulation of wealth, from the rapid increase of mechanical and chemical power, created capitalists who were among the most ignorant and injurious of the population. The wealth created by the industry of the people, now made abject slaves to these new artificial powers, accumulated in the hands of what are called the monied classes, who create none of it, and who mis-used all they acquire” (Owen, cited in Bloom 2003:5). In very general terms physiocratie criticized State intervention and exalted the importance of land and agriculture. “Under the head of Communism it is usual to class those organizations which propose to adjust the whole conduct of the human being, and not only to regulate property, industry', and the sources of livelihood, but also to revolutionize the domestic relations and the social morals of mankind. The less unpopular term of Socialism is generally applied to a revolution in the laws of property and the organization of labour. But no such distinction is
fully established, and all the views and projects of the re-organizers run more or less into each other. -...- To give under the head of each separate artificial system—as, for instance, under Phalanstery, St-Simonianism, Fourierism, or Owenism—a specific account of the minutiae of each system thus propounded, after the manner in which an account is given of the several sciences and philosophical systems, is the course which would naturally give most satisfaction to the supporters of each scheme ; for, as there has been little good understanding among the several projectors, and each has generally attacked the others, an inquiry in which their systems are mixed up with each other would be received as a confusion of truth with falsehood, and of sagacity with quackery.” (Burton 1854:3-4). xvii Haney (1911:311) explains:”Under such circumstances there arose the three noted utopists, Saint-Simon, Owen, and Fourier, who almost simultaneously conceived the idea of bringing down aid to the poor from above, of regenerating mankind by educating them to live in an ideal social order guided by the wisest and best among them. In their schemes for social reform these men were speculative, and reasoned from ideal postulates. Moreover, they were broadly humanitarian in their plans, differing from later Socialists in that they did not seek to organize the laborers in class-conflict, but to improve the lot of humanity through educational experimentation.”. Readers may notice here how scholars had already begun to associate non-Marxist socialism with utopianism. xviii “Every social movement, every real advance in England on behalf of the workers links itself on to the name of Robert Owen. He forced through in 1819, after five years' fighting, the first law limiting the hours of labor of women and children in factories. He was president of the first Congress at which all the Trade Unions of England united in a single great trade association. He introduced as transition measures to the complete communistic organization of society, on the one hand, co-operative societies for retail trade and production. On the other hand, he introduced labor bazaars for the exchange of the products of labor through the medium of labor-notes, whose unit was a single hour of work; ... [these institutions] did not claim to be the panacea for all social ills, but only a first step towards a much more radical revolution of society” (Engels quoted in Altfest 1977:37-38) xix “As for Proudhon, Fourier or Owen, their followers draw up schemes to save the bourgeoisie, as if the proletariat did not exist, or else could be drawn upwards into capitalist ranks, leaving only exploiters and no exploited. This endless variety of views represents the desperate plight of the bourgeoisie unable or unwilling to face its own impending death, concentrating upon vain efforts to survive under the guise of a vague and opportunist socialism.” (Berlin, n.d:http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/published_works/km/uncut/marx7uncut.doc ). “Indeed, the contrast between the Government's benevolence towards Owen and the persecution it inflicted upon them [radical reformist etc ] led some of his opponents to suggest that he was a paid agent of the Administration, an accusation that was also made in later years. The agitation which preceded the passage of the Reform Act of 1832 also met with Owen's hostility. ” (Miliband 1954:237). xx Hailed by some as the first Jewish-American to serve in superior courts. He became famous for his “landmark rulings”. xxi Cardozo (1889:6) continues: “it may serve to lessen cant and open the way for fresh and vigorous thought, if we shall once convince ourselves that altruism cannot be the rule of life; that its logical result is the dwarfing of the individual man; and that not by the death of human personality can we hope to banish the evils of our day, and to realize the ideal of all existence, a nobler or purer life.” xxii “It may be necessary to stress the fact that Owen was a social revolutionary and that his doctrine, far from postulating reforms within the existing order, was set in the context of its complete sub- version. ” (Miliband 1954:233). “Yet Owen desired and advocated the abolition of privilege. The contradiction is only apparent. The advantages of the rich were only " supposed" advantages. Let the truths he revealed be fully under- stood and these advantages would be seen for the paltry things they were ” (Miliband 1954:236). xxiii ”Pour de nombreux écrivains et philosophes, les oeuvres de -...- Sade (1740-1814) peuvent aider à faire comprendre les origines intellectuelles ou culturelles du nazisme. -...- Mon propos est de soutenir cette interprétation de Sade.” (Roche 2003:n.p). xxiv “ Now Sade was not interested in anything so trivial as the rehabilitation of the passions, nor, as a blue-blooded aristocrat, was he concerned with defending merit against birth, or arguing the case between social justice against rampant capitalism.“ (Coward 2000, no page) xxv “Ma Sade -...- rimane un aristocratico, come modo di vivere e di pensare “(Tumminelli 1998:120 ). xxvi “Sade's vision is utterly without transcendence. But, if he could have allowed himself to violate the last taboo of all, and allow wretched and abused Madame de Mistival to experience pleasure, then the terms of his vision would be
disrupted. Transcendence would have crept in. He might even have to make room for hope. -...-But Madame de Mistival, if she does indeed feel the first faint prick of pleasure, faints to avoid the consciousness of it.” (Carter 1979:129). Madame de Mistival is the 'traditional' mother of Eugénie, the pubescent apprentice libertine in Sade's La Philosophie dans le Boudoir. In an attempt to rescue her daughter, Madame de Mistival is first apprehended and then raped and subjected to repeated sexual assaults, the last of which consists in a rape that will infect her with syphilis and in her sexual orifices being sewn shut with needle and thread. As a shaman of the new feminist cult in trance, Carter continues (1979:132-133) “Were Madame de Mistival to have come, then all the dykes would be "breached at once and chaos and universal night instantly descend; pleasure would have asserted itself triumphant ly over pain and the necessity for the existence of repression as a sexual stimulant would have ceased to exist . There would arise the possibility of a world in which the concept of taboo is meaningless and pornography itself would cease to exist.” (Carter 1979:129-133). xxvii “He also recognized that the retail shops sold inferior goods at high prices, and so Owen arranged to buy high quality things workers and their families needed at wholesale prices, and shared this advantage by lowering prices about 25 percent.-...- I must review briefly his record of creative management to set the stage for his educational programs. Owen began to introduce various significant changes in the work place and the social environment surrounding it. He introduced a food cooperative, where quality foods at wholesale prices were purchased and then sold locally, with members involved in the process of distribution; all benefitted from the improved quality and quantity of foods.” (Bloom 2003:276). xxviii “Owen denied that poverty was the inescapable price of progress, that the poor were themselves responsible for their physical and mental degradation and that unimpeded competition was the necessary condition of continued prosperity. He denied that a society could be called civilized which left the vast majority of its members helpless victims of ignorance and destitution, and the denial went in hand with the assertion that it was the positive duty of society to provide the means whereby men might freely develop their faculties. -...- This belief implied the disappearance of every vestige of the old society and for its sake he was prepared to challenge not only the new industrialism, but the most deeply entrenched social and religious prejudices of his age. Religion and property, among other institutions, had played their part in the corruption and degradation of man. They must therefore be swept aside for the sake of the new moral society. The doctrine was nothing if not thorough ” (Miliband 1954:233234). “He viewed unions not at all as weapons of economic, still less of political, struggle but as the nu- clei of cooperative communities of production and distribution. ” (Miliband 1954:241). xxix “" You live in the midst of a society altogether different from that in which your ancestors lived in this district one hundred years ago. At that period there was not the improved steam engine of Watt, nor Arkwright's improved spinning machinery ; the power-loom, mail coaches, steamboats, gas lights, steam carriages ; and a thousand minor inventions now familiar to you, were then unknown. There were no cotton, woollen, flax, or silk mills ; there were no children employed in mills of machinery ; there were no women taken from their domestic duties and from their homes to public works. There were no feelings of hatred between masters and servants ; there were no poor wretches over-exhausted with labour in unhealthy atmospheres, doomed in bad times of periodical and frequent occurrence to live miserably, or to die by slow starvation, while surrounded by wasteful and extravagant luxury ; there were light poor rates, and all ashamed to apply for them ; there were many holiday periods in the year, much health, and a considerable degree of rustic enjoyment for the working classes, who were then chiefly employed in agriculture, living in the family with their employers, and working daily with them, or living and working in a similar manner. -...- This change," he goes onto say, " has produced many advantages, but it has also produced, many disadvantages.” (Owen cited in Jones 1890 vol.II:57-58). Sade championed physiocratie against mercantilisme. xxx Sade's Utopian ruler Zamé favors isolation highly:”Il [Zamé's father] voulut que ce peuple aimable et pacifique, heureux de son climat, de ses productions, de son peu de loix, de la simplicité de son culte, conservât toujours son innocence en ne correspondant jamais avec des Nations étrangères, qui ne lui inculqueraient aucune vertu, et qui lui donneraient beaucoup de vices. ” (Sade 1795-3:n.p). xxxi “If, then, due care as to the state of your inanimate machines can produce such beneficial results, what may not be expected if you devote equal attention to your vital machines [workers], which are far more wonderfully constructed?” (Owen 1816:http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/owen/ch01.htm ). “and this leads him [Sade] to conclude that there was no God, no revealed truth. A person was only a material thing, which perished at death. There was no universal cause, and the cosmos was an "assemblage of unlike entities which act
and react mutually and successively with and against each other"—an account heavily based on the mechanistic system of d'Holbach and La Mettrie” (Jenkins 1984:126). xxxii “Hegel's idealist theories and his conception of the Unity of Reality were to lead inevitably to an organic theory of the State, and translated into the sphere of education they entailed compul- sory schooling, public control, and the subordination of the individual. -...- Fortunately, the Utilitarian thesis, with its corollaries of the value of individuality and self-help, was soon to meet, on British soil, the Idealist an- tithesis of Organism and the totality of the State” (Fowler 1961:338). xxxiii “A la simple lecture du roman, trois constatations préliminaires s'imposent, qui sont des données de fait dans ['architecture du livre. D'abord la présence envahissante de la sensibilité: non seulement dans ses manifestations immédiates (scènes d'attendrissement et de larmes, soupirs, émotion procurée par les actes de bienfaisance, expression lyrique des sentiments etc .), mais aussi au niveau explicite, où elle est perçue comme telle par les personnages et leur sert à se définir eux-mêmes et à se définir entre eux:” (Garagnon 1983:175). xxxiv “Robert Owen's factory experiments and his miniature socialist communities although not completely barren did not have any decisive bearing on the desirability of improving working conditions or of establishing a socialist society.” (Mardiros 1948:342). xxxv Léonore's peregrinations are disseminated with her taking advantage of and manipulating a series of diverse characters ranging from meek physician Dolcini to brutal cannibal King Ben Maacoro. xxxvi Staffed with its historical leaders from the 'rugged 1970s' (and 1960s and 1950s and 1940s...), the last incarnation of Partito Comunista in Italy goes under the American name of Partito Democratico. xxxvii “In this paper we explore some of the enduring themes that arguably characterise Owen and Blair and their respective followers. While Owen and Blair are separated by two centuries, there is a considerable degree of coincidence in their approaches and agendas. New Labour sees itself as constructing a new Britain, a new welfare system and a Third Way approach to politics and the state, which is constructed as new in that it purports to ‘go beyond’ both ‘Old’ Labour and the Conservatives. As with Blair and New Labour, for Owen constructing a particular vision of ‘new’ society was an important objective. -...- For both Owen and the Owenites, and Blair and New Labour, there is a shared effort to distance themselves from ‘past failures’ while projecting an image of the future, an attempt to construct a model or vision of what a ‘good’ society should look like.” (Donnachie 2007:275). xxxviii
The marquis is convinced that the amount of one's peregrinations and thus misfortunes determines one's level of philosophie; for Léonore peregrinations and philosophie go hand in hand (Sade 1795-1:926). “ But this calamity, virtue destroyed, is only the moral surface of a deeper catastrophe wreaked by the forces of Nature. Sade's narrative, with its repetitive thematic variations on a single debasement, brings into focus the abiding disorder of existence. Blind and chaotic, the capricious workings of Providence tumble human destiny into diverse misfortunes that reiterate the same primary experience of pain.“ (Ilie 1984:3) xl Sade idolizes nature as ruthless force whose only ethics is situational, in turn likened to domination and tyranny (in the words of dom Lopes, Sade 1795-1:982 ); to a justification for evil deeds (in the words of a rapist, Sade 17951:1159 ); to the ultimate source of crime (according to Bersac, Sade 1795-1:1356 ); to a source of awe ( Valcour, Sade 1795-1:316 ); to an 'invisible hand' behind the development of history (Sade 1795-1:1358); to a perpetual horizon to defy and go past ( Léonore, Sade 1795-1:1411) and so forth. xli “The dignitaries of the church, and their adherents, foresaw that a national system for the education of the poor, unless it were placed under the immediate influence and management of individuals belonging to the church, would effectually and rapidly undermine the errors, not only of their own, but of every other ecclesiastical establishment. In this foresight they evinced the superiority of their penetration over the sectaries by whom the unexclusive system is supported. The heads of the church have wisely discovered that reason and inconsistency cannot long exist together; that the one must inevitably destroy the other, and reign paramount. They have witnessed the regular, and latterly the rapid progress which reason has made;” -...- Let us, however, not attempt impossibilities; the task is vain and hopeless; the Church, while it adheres to the defective and injurious parts of its system, cannot be induced to act cordially in opposition to its apparent interests. (Owen 1816:http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/owen/ch04.htm ). xlii Sade -in his theorization of what a good novel ought to be like- first praises his times for the progress ( “ à l'example des Titans “ Sade 1800, no page ) in the realm of philosophie and self-awareness. xxxix
“We well know that a declaration like the one now made must sound chimerical in the ears of those who have hitherto wandered in the dark mazes of ignorance, error, and exclusion, and who have been taught folly and inconsistencies only from their cradle.” (Owen 1816:http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/owen/ch04.htm ). xliv In order to preserve their blessed state of bons sauvages, the father of the island's ruler instructed “puis m'ayant conduit sur le terrain de la mine dont il craignait que les richesses n'attirassent ses compatriotes: tirons de ceci, me dit-il, ce qu'il faut pour vous faire voyager avec autant de magnificence que d'utilité: on ne peut malheureusement sortir d'ici, saris que ce métal ne devienne nécessaire; mais continuez à le laisser dans le mépris aux yeux de cette nation simple et heureuse, qui ne le connaîtrait qu'en se dégradant. ”. Adhering to Sade's philosophy, Zamé's philosophie can only be acquired through travels and peregrination:”Je parcourus le monde entier; je fus vingt ans absent de ma patrie; et je ne les employai qu'à connaître les hommes; me mêlant avec eux sous toutes sortes de déguisemens, ” (Sade 1795-3:n.p); he needs suitable wealth to accommodate his needs, but wealth could very well spoil bons sauvages. Although free of nativist suggestions, Owen shared a similar approach. xlv “Cette ville, construite sur un plan régulier, nous offrit un coup-d'oeil charmant. Elle avait plus de deux lieues de circuit sa forme était exactement ronde; routes les rues en étaient alignées; mais chacune de ces rues était plutôt une promenade, qu'un passage. Elles étaient bordées d'arbres, des deux côtés, des trottoirs régnaient le long des maisons, et le milieu était un sable doux, formant un marcher agréable. Toutes ces maisons étaient uniformes; il n'y en avait pas une qui fût, ni plus haute, ni plus grande que l'autre; chacune avait un rez-de-chaussée, un premier étage, une terrasse à l'italienne, au-dessus, et présentait de face une porte régulière d'entrée, au milieu de deux fenêtres, qui, chacune, avait au-dessus d'elle la croisée servant à donner du jour au premier étage. Toutes ces façades étaient régulièrement peintes par compartimens symétriques, en couleur de rose et en vert, ce qui donnait à chacune de ces rues, l'air d'une décoration. ” (Sade 1795-3:n.p) xlvi “Owen advocated that instruction should be provided for the children of the poor, an innovation since it had not been customary for poor children to attend school. He proposed the organization of self-sufficient communities based on socialist principles. He envisioned subdivisions occupying plots of land of 1,000 to 1,500 acres neatly laid out like parallelograms, each accommodating about twelve hundred people, with dormitories and schools for children three years of age or older.” (Altfest 1977:31). Altfest (1977:31ss) gives more details to the effect; the description could very well be Tamoé's. xlvii Geometry, patterning and repetition are typically Utopia's cavalieri serventi. xlviii “Grand par ses seules vertus, respecté par sa seule sagesse, gardé par le seul coeur du peuple, je me crus transporté, en le voyant, dans ces temps heureux de l'âge d'or. Je crus voir enfin Sésos; tris au milieu de la ville de Thèbes. ” (Sade 1795-3:n.p). xlix “Au moment du départ, un jeune Officier du vaisseau, devenu éperdument amoureux d'une femme de cette contrée, se cacha, laissa partir ses compatriotes, et dès qu'il les crut éloignés, assemblant les chefs de la nation, il leur déclara par le moyen de la femme qu'il aimait, et avec laquelle il était venu à bout de s'entendre, qu'il n'était resté dans l'île que par l'excessif attachement qu'un si bon peuple lui avait inspiré; -...- il fut unanimement élu souverain de l'île: de ce moment il en changea la constitution; ” (Sade 1795-3:n.p). l “Zamé, (c'était le nom de cet homme rare), pouvait avoir soixante-dix ans, à peine en paraissait-il cinquante; il était grand, d'une figure agréable, le port noble, le sourire gracieux, l'oeil vif, le front orné des plus beaux cheveux blancs, et réunissant enfin à l'agrément de l'âge mûr toute la majesté de la vieillesse. ” (Sade 1795-3:n.p). li Zamé greets Sainville's crew in fluent Dutch. lii http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/owen/ch04.htm liii http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/owen/ch04.htm liv Owen tries to tempt ruling classes into considering the long-term benefits for the State in terms of increased wealth, hence taxation etc. lv Readers should never forget Owen dealt with real-life advocacy at the highest levels of the British society; he had thus to be very cautious not to disquiet people whose help he was trying to get. Sade -on the other hand- could afford to tell it as he saw fit. lvi “Les dispositions seules de nos jeunes gens établissent la différence de leurs occupations pendant leur vie -...-.mais, ni les uns, ni les autres, ne sont mercenaires, on les paie des services qu'ils rendent par d'autres services; c'est pour le bien de l'État qu'ils travaillent, quel infâme préjugé les avilirait donc? quel motif les rabaisserait aux yeux de leur xliii
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compatriotes? Ils ont le même bien, la même naissance, ils doivent donc être égaux ” (Sade 1795-3:n.p). “Le plus mauvais petit prince d'Allemagne fait meilleure chère que moi [said Zamé], n'est-ce pas mon ami, me dit Zamé. Voulez-vous savoir pourquoi? C'est qu'il nourrit son orgueil beaucoup plus que son estomac, et qu'il imagine qu'il y a de la grandeur et de la magnificence à faire assommer vingt bêtes pour en substanter une. -...- Vous boirez de l'eau, mon convive, regardez sa limpidité, savourez sa fraîcheur; vous n'imaginez pas les soins que j'emploie pour l'avoir bonne. Quelle liqueur peut valoir celle-là? En peut-il être de plus saine? -...- ce luxe intolérable, qui n'est le fruit que du sang des peuples ” (Sade 1795-3:n.p). “Peu après, deux citoyens de la même espèce que ceux que nous avions vus dans la ville, habillés de même; (tous, à la couleur près, l'étaient également) -...-. Le gris, le rose et vert sont les trois seules couleurs qu'ils adoptent pour leurs habits: la première est celle des vieillards, l'âge mûre emploie le vert, et l'autre est pour la jeunesse. ” (Sade 1795-3:n.p). “Robert Owen did not attempt the immediate displacement of marriage. But he included marriage with irrational religion and private property as one of the "awful trinity" of man's oppressors, and contemplated its ultimate destruction. His son, Robert Dale Owen, was outspoken in his enmity to marriage, and became a leading advocate of free divorce. Both father and son were enthusiastic disciples of Modern Spiritualism, a religious cult of which Free Love was believed by many the social complement.” (Noyes 1931:n.p). “On the other hand, a communist will maintain that children ought to be immediately removed from their parents and brought up by a committee of management, because, to use the words of Robert Owen, " the affections of parents for their own childien are too strong for their judgments ever to do justice to themselves, their children, or the public, in the education of their own children, even if private families possessed the machinery—which they never do—to well manufacture character from birth."” (Burton 1854:6). The line of thought is just too similar to Zamé's:”les enfans quittent ici la maison paternelle dès qu'ils n'ont plus besoin du sein de la mère; l'éducation qu'ils reçoivent est nationale; ils ne sont plus les fils de tel ou tel, ce sont les enfans de l'État; les parens peuvent les voir dans les maisons où on les élève, mais les enfans ne rentrent plus dans la maison paternelle; par ce moyen, plus d'intérêt particulier, plus d'esprit de famille, toujours fatal à l'égalité, quelquefois dangereux à l'État; plus de crainte d'avoir des enfans au-delà des biens qu'on peut leur laisser. -...- On a dit, on a écrit que l'éducation nationale ne convenait qu'à une République, et l'on s'est trompé: cette sorte d'éducation convient à tout Gouvernement qui voudra faire aimer la Patrie(Sade 1795-3:n.p).” “attaquées par l'ennemi, tous nos citoyens alors deviendraient soldats: il n'en est pas un seul qui ne préférât la mort à l'idée de changer de gouvernement ” (Sade 1795-3:n.p). “voilà encore un des fruits de ma politique; c'est en me faisant aimer d'eux que je les ai rendu militaires; c'est en leur composant un sort doux, une vie heureuse, c'est en faisant fleurir l'agriculture, c'est en les mettant dans l'abondance de tout ce qu'ils peuvent désirer, que je les ai liés par des noeuds indissolubles; en s'opposant aux usurpateurs, ce sont leurs foyers qu'ils garantissent, leurs femmes, leurs enfans, le bonheur unique de leur vie; et on se bat bien pour ces choses là. ”. “As an example how easily and effectually this might be accomplished over the British Isles, it is intended that the boys trained and educated at the Institution at New Lanark shall be thus instructed; that the person appointed to attend the children in the playground shall be qualified to drill and teach the boys the manual exercise, and that he shall be frequently so employed; that afterwards, firearms, of proportionate weight and size to the age and strength of the boys, shall be provided for them, when also they might be taught to practise and understand the more complicated military movements. -...-. Thus, in a few years, by foresight and arrangement, may almost the whole expense and inconvenience attending the local military be superseded, and a permanent force created, which in numbers, discipline, and principles, would be superior, beyond all comparison, for the purposes of defence; always ready in case of need, yet without the loss which is now sustained by the community of efficient and valuable labour. The expenditure which would be saved by this simple expedient, would be far more than competent to educate the whole of the poor and labouring classes of these kingdoms.” (Owen 1816:http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/owen/ch03.htm ). Consider how similar Zamé's idea is:”Fortifiez vos frontières, rendez-vous respectables à vos voisins. Renoncez à l'esprit de conquêtes, et n'ayant jamais d'ennemis, ne devant vous occuper qu'à garantir vos limites, vous n'aurez pas besoin de soudoyer une si grande quantité d'hommes en tout tems; vous rendrez, en les reformant, cent mille bras à la charrue, bien mieux placés qu'à porter un fusil qui ne sert pas quatre fois par siècle et qui ne servirait pas une, par le plan que j'indique.
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Vous n'enlèverez plus alors au père de famille des enfans qui lui sont nécessaires, vous n'introduirez pas l'esprit de licence et de débauche parmi l'élite de vos citoyens,et tout cela pour le luxe imbécile d'avoir toujours une armée formidable. les jeunes gens s'exercent sans tirer; si la chose était sérieuse, ils savent ce qui en résulterait, cela suffit. ” (Sade 1795-3:n.p). “Eh que t'importe, Dieu juste et saint, que t'importe nos systèmes et nos opinions! Que fait à ta grandeur la manière dont l'homme t'invoque, c'est que tu veux, c'est qu'il soit juste; ce qui te plaît, c'est qu'il soit humain:tu n'exiges ni génuflexions, ni cérémonies; tu n'as besoins ni de dogmes, ni de mystères; tu ne veux que l'effusion des coeurs, tu n'attends de nous que reconnaissance et qu'amour. ” (Sade 1795-3:n.p). Sade is especially fond of ridicule:”Que les opinions qu'on adopte soient réellement des ridicules, voilà l'orgueil compromis, et dès ce moment l'on change de plan.” (Sade 1795-1:1195, note 1)