Sébastien FAURE (1858-1942)
"This system of coercion gradually produces drab, dull, colorless, self-effacing human beings—people without will, without enthusiasm, without individuality; a servile, cowardly, sheep-like race, incapable of the courageous or sublime acts whose accomplishment presupposes and requires passion, independence, and inner fire, yet perfectly capable of cruelty and degradation. (...) The system of freedom leads to entirely different results."
Sébastien Faure
Thoughts of an Educator
(A Modest Treatise on Physical, Intellectual, and Moral Education)
in Écrits pédagogiques (Educational Writings), Paris, Éditions du Monde libertaire, 1992,p.71;
and in Normand Baillargeon, Education and Freedom, Montreal, Lux Éditeur, 2005, p.356.
Born into a bourgeois and conservative family, Sébastien Faure initially entered the Jesuit novitiate. He soon abandoned this vocation, however, and became a socialist activist before later embracing the anarchist movement. He went on to deliver numerous lectures throughout France. A gifted speaker of remarkable eloquence, he enjoyed great success and frequently attracted capacity audiences.
In 1895, together with Louise Michel, he co-founded the newspaper Le Libertaire, and in 1899 he helped establish the Journal du Peuple, financed by Octave Mirbeau. In 1922 he launched the Revue anarchiste (Anarchist Review), and later directed and coordinated the publication of the Encyclopédie anarchiste (Anarchist Encyclopedia, 1933–1934), a monumental work comprising four volumes and 2,895 pages.
His other major achievement was the creation of a libertarian, working-class school near Rambouillet: La Ruche (The Beehive).