“And finally, what if Marat were to return today? What would he think of the state of our planet in the second decade of the twenty-first century? He could read in the history books that the Great French Revolution—his Revolution—is recognized as the watershed event in the making of the modern world.
‘But what did it accomplish?’ he might ask.
‘It rid France of a parasitic class whose right to rule was based upon aristocratic birthright and traditional privilege.’
‘Is that all?’
‘It established legal and political equality, which then spread throughout much of Europe and the world.’
‘Legal and political equality? What about economic and social equality?’
‘No, the situation in that regard is even worse than you remember it. Today, despite two centuries of mind-boggling technological progress, a handful of billionaires control most of the Earth’s resources while billions of people remain mired in hunger, disease, oppression, and grinding poverty.’
Marat would surely be shocked and dismayed to learn that after more than 200 years his struggle for social revolution had lost none of its relevance and urgency. Where is the People’s Friend now, when we need him?”
– Clifford D. Conner, “Jean Paul Marat: Tribune of the French Revolution”
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