Fire in the minds of men: origins of the revolutionary faith
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The revolutionary concept of communaute may have come less from the high culture of the Enlightenment than from the low culture of popular journalism.
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The word “communism” was introduced to the world by Mercier’s friend and fellow journalistic chronicler of Paris, Restif de la Bretonne : the “Rousseau of the gutter,” the “jean-jacques des Halles.”
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auteur communiste-the first known appearance in print of this word.
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The Project for a Philosophical Community of 1 779, which may be considered the first full blueprint for a secular, communist society in the modern world.
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Thus, Restif was able to refer his correspondent , the self-proclaimed “communist author,” to works of his own that had already taken his communist ideas beyond the out line in Le Paysan perverti.
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In February 1 793, Resti£ used the term communism as his own for the first time to describe the fundamental change in ownership that would obviate the need for any further redistribution of goods and property.
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Resti£ insisted that the absolute elimination of private property would end human need but not individual initiative. He s aw communism as a more effective cause for rallying the French army than the “uncom pleted republic”
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“the only one worthy of reasonable men.”
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communist order could bring to an end seduction by money and the attendant corruption and vice
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a new monnaie communismale to replace traditional forms of exchange .