из Де Местра в изложении Берлина)
If stability is what is wanted – and stability is wanted – for without stability society cannot exist – if stability is what is wanted, then the worst possible foundation upon which society could conceivably rest is what our eighteenth-century philosophers urge upon us, namely reason.
Reason means argument, reason means some kind of construction on the part of rational beings of some kind as other rational beings are able to criticize using exactly the same weapons. Now, what man makes, man can mar. If you really want a stable foundation for society, then the most shaky foundation upon which we can place it is that of unaided human reason. Because, even when we may prove that one particular kind of institution is good or even the best, another man, cleverer than you, tomorrow will disprove it. Anything that argument puts up, argument will pull down.
And so nothing is less stable than things which rely on such a precarious foundation as reason, because one reason is toppled by another. The only foundation which is ultimately stable is something which cannot be reached by destructive forces. Reasoning, analysis polarizes. <...> Reason analyzes, it takes to pieces. Anything which is taken to pieces ceases to be mysterious, becomes clear, and as a result of becoming clear sometimes falls into familiarity and vast contempt.
Therefore, the only way in which we secure a solid basis for government which nobody will be able to shake is by making it impervious to reason. How is this done? This is done by founding societies upon foundations so dark, so mysterious and so terrifying that anyone who will dare to approach them will find himself subject most immediately to the most hideous and enormous penalties.
По Берлину, Руссо был прото-коммунистом, а Де Местр - прото-фашистом)) Well, the shoe definitely fits, I'd say.