"[It was the] cynicism, really. Just the exhausted cynicism of people who had seen for a moment what looked like the dawn of a new era of human relations that failed to come to fruition. That cynicism -- it would track regardless of your beliefs. It applied to people who were horrified by the excesses of the Terror, it applied to people who thought that the Terror was justified.
Because either way, you saw a guttering-out of idealism, in the face either of the totalitarianism of the Committee of Public Safety or the cynical opportunism of the Directory that followed.
There was a systematic breakdown of the networks that had allowed for street power to briefly exist. That was the real fundamental fact of the early revolutionary era -- that on a moment's notice, huge crowds could come into the administrative capital of France and dictate terms.
Over time, it wasn't just the exhaustion, and it wasn't just the war, there was an effort by the Jacobins themselves (and those that came after) to systematically reduce and annihilate the systems of committees and local authorities that could draw those people out. It was gutted from within and from without.
No matter where you were on the social spectrum of politics, you saw a revolution that was, essentially, a zombie. That, I think more than anything, explains how Napoleon was able to take power relatively easily considering how badly he performed on the day itself."
-- Matt Christman, Age Of Napoleon Podcast, episode "Marx and the Coup", in response to the question "What strikes you about the political climate of France on the eve of the coup of Brumaire?"
