Demons

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

This’ll make you laugh: what first of all affects them terribly is a uniform. There’s nothing stronger than a uniform. I purposely invent ranks and positions: I have secretaries, secret stool pigeons, treasurers, chairmen, registrars, their adjuncts—it’s all very much liked and has caught on splendidly. Then the next force, naturally, is sentimentality. You know, with us socialism spreads mostly through sentimentality. But the trouble here is with these biting lieutenants; you get burned every so often. Then come the out-and-out crooks; well, they can be nice folk, very profitable on occasion, but they take up a lot of time, require constant surveillance. Well, and finally the main force—the cement that bonds it all—is shame at one’s own opinion. There is a real force! And who was it that worked, who was the ‘sweetie’15 that labored so that there isn’t a single idea of one’s own left in anyone’s head! They consider it shameful.”