Dandong

An ordinary evening, Robespierre found his close comrade Danton and asked him to stay away from a prostitute named Marion. At this time, it was the period of the Jacobin dictatorship, and the revolution was in full swing; perhaps Luo also used revolutionary ideals to provide some ideological and moral education to Dandong.

"Conscience is a mirror, only monkeys torture themselves in front of it" was Danton's answer to Luo. At this time, Luo had completely despaired of this "former" close comrade-in-arms, and ordered his men to "not let the struggle before death drag on for too long."

Previously, Dandong’s friends already knew that Luo was going to attack him. Marat's sister warned Dandong, and others also prepared an escape route for Dandong. Dandong said, "I can't take my motherland with me and run away with me" - quite a bit like Tan Sitong, so he died "as scheduled".

The reason why he died "as scheduled" is because Dandong was sent to the guillotine through a "legal trial." This guillotine was described as Danton's self-bragging capital in Hugo's "93" - when Marat said that the guillotine was a virgin, Danton said frivolously that he could make her pregnant. Marat was assassinated and died in the bathtub; now, Danton died on the guillotine, proving his arrogance with his life.

In fact, this history has little to do with the prostitute named Marion; Dandong was not accused by Luo because of any physical relationship with her. It just happened that Dandong did not want to shed more blood, and Marion advocated the rights of prostitutes--for Dandong, it was the individualized rights of the people, which made the two coincidentally become revolutionary comrades.

Robespierre did not want to "let the revolutionary horse park in front of the brothel." After a "trial", Dandong was executed.

How familiar is this scene? Yes, this reminds us of Socrates who drank poison. After a democratic vote, Socrates was sentenced to death for beguiling young people. He could have escaped, but in order not to destroy the legal dignity of "must be believed", he chose to obey the absurd but legally legal sentence.

In the book "Heavy Flesh", Liu Xiaofeng wrote: "The death of Socrates questioned 'democracy', and the death of Danton questioned the 'freedom' of modern people's democracy. "In addition to democracy and freedom, what other values ??does the law have worth pursuing?

When later generations talk about Socrates, they all admire his courage to die and his wisdom in decision-making. If he escapes, what he will save is his life, a glass of water, but what he will pollute is the entire river of legal dignity. Socrates chose to drink poison just because he didn't want "law" to die. In his mind, although democracy can make mistakes, it is not poison in itself.

As for Dandong, he hoped that the country could give its people individualized freedom and turn the Taoist country into a country that reflects the curves of the people's bodies. However, he was deprived of his life by this unrestricted "freedom". Such a death cannot be resisted.

Socrates’ last words were that if he owed Asclepius a chicken, he must remember to pay him back; Socrates was not willing to owe others such a small thing. Dandong's last words said that life is a burden to me, and anyone who wants it can take it; such an important thing is as light as a feather in Dandong's eyes. But what they all value is: obeying the judgment of the law.

Socrates died, and Danton died—all after "legal trials." But the law itself does no evil. Investigating the reason, we still need to "put people first" and trace the origin from the makers and executors of the law. The knife can cure diseases and save lives on the operating table, or commit crimes on the guillotine.