Without general elections, without unrestricted freedom of press and assembly, without a free struggle of opinion, life dies out in every public institution, becomes a mere semblance of life, in which only the bureaucracy remains as the active element. Public life gradually falls asleep, a few dozen party leaders of inexhaustible energy and boundless experience direct and rule.... Such conditions must inevitably cause a brutalization of public life: attempted assassinations, shootings of hostages, etc.
ATTRIBUTION:
Rosa Luxemburg (1870–1919), German revolutionary. Prison notes, 1918. The Russian Revolution, ch. 6 (1922, trans. 1961).
