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head again under the old yoke. From fear of the laborers, in whom it scented a new and dangerous power, it became reactionary, without ever having been revolutionary; it did penance for its dreams of freedom, which appeared to it as youthful indiscretions, and threw itself into the arms of political reactionism, filled with but one remaining ideal, viz.: to get rich. The citizen disappeared from the political arena and became either politically indifferent or else capitalistic. And to be capitalistic means to recognize and support the government unconditionally, provided it is a class government and represents and promotes exclusively the interests of capitalism.
To prevent misunderstandings and wrong impressions, we must become fully conscious of the difference between "political" and "capitalistic." These two ideas, which because of the ambiguity of the German word "Buerger" are very easily confused by us, must be clearly separated from each other. In France the word "bourgeois," which in the middle ages had the same meaning as our "Buerger," in the course of time and of economic development gradually assumed the meaning of "great-capitalist;" whereas we Germans for this latter idea borrow the French word "bourgeois," but also use concurrently the German words "Buerger and "buergerlich" without noticing the difference. So there arises a confusion of language which is anything but conducive to clearness of conception. We speak of "buergerlich" society, and mean modern capitalistic bourgeois society. We speak of "buergerlich" spirit, "buergerlich" freedom, and mean a democratic spirit of freedom such as the citizenry had in former times when it was fighting the priests and feudal landlords, which spirit, however, is diametrically opposed to the spirit of the capitalistic, and hence reaction-
