The Middle Kingdoms by Martyn Rady;

Author:Martyn Rady; [Rady, Martyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
Published: 2023-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

At the start, I remained in doubt whether it was a human being or a mechanical figure, so very much was everything human in it erased… for everything passionate and sympathetic was extinguished on its cold wooden forehead and the marionette sat lifelessly erect. Now the invisible wire was pulled, and the fingers clicked, grasped the pen, and signed three papers in a row; I peered more acutely—they were death warrants.20

The watchman confounds the judge by showing him the adultery of his wife, which demands the death sentence too. But Bonaventura and Jean Paul were straws in the wind. Rulers, civil servants, magistrates, and university teachers saw the machine as an aspiration and not as a threat. Its rhythms and predictability showed what the state should be—a perfectly running clockwork of cogs and springs.

The most complete description of the state as a machine was given in 1758 by J. H. G. Justi, at that time a servant of the Danish king but soon to move to Prussian employment (where he ended up in jail for embezzlement):

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