for them to proclaim so ardently that they wish to be "free" and nature's children, and yet, in effect, to carry through great movements that result in an absolute mechanization their life -- can only mean one thing

It must mean they do not really know what they want; that they do not, in their heart, desire freedom or anything of the sort.

Freedom postulates a relatively solitary life, and the majority of people are extremely gregarious. A disciplined, well-policed herd-life is what they most desire

The naturalistic form that 18th century revolution took was because all violent revolution is saturnalian. A rare saturnalia is necessary for most people, but it exhausts their passions, and the rest of the year they are anything but their saturnalian selves

The few years of youth is such a saturnalia, but in that case, youth is not synonymous with life

the industrial slave looks down on his agricultural brother-serf vegetating among his pigs and crops. To be anchored to a plot of land like a tree is much the same thing as to be tied for life to a machine, only the former is healthier.

But this is not how most people regard it. To be anchored amongst people is their true heart's desire; to share their life and responsibility, to be a blind, dependent, obedient cell of a crowd organism

their happiness is found in having all biologic responsibility taken ut of their hands. They do not like to grow, to feel, to think, and suffer for themselves. They far prefer having it done for them

The miracle of education answers this purpose, only it forestalls the event. It provides them with a system of habits which agree with their neighbor's habits, and from this coma they seldom wake. This is the kindest thing that can happen in the usual human life