Re. the Condorcet quote by Hayek: ??? la guerre comme ??? la guerre! Yuri Tulupenko's references and Alain Alcouffe's remarks have gratefully scattered my disbelief of Condorcet's proposition for the PHYSICAL destruction of historical artefacts. But still: his politico-parliamentary statement and the consequent burning of deeds of nobility etc. (more than symbolic, but would this have eradicated ALL historical evidence?) must have made (some) sense in 1792. Perhaps in the way that the burning of books had been a common - though unsuccessful - symbolical procedure of Royal censorship in the Ancient Regime. Condorcet made his proposal at a time when - following the bad performance of the French army at the start of the first Coalition War (april 1792 - the Austro-Prussian Coalition was preparing for the invasion of France. In order to counter this threat, fierce revolutionary propaganda had to be made for the levy of volunteers, and ... ??? la guerre comme ??? la guerre! The bad turn of events in the war was caused, it was believed, by counter revolutionary treason in France and by the desertion of a large part of the aristrocrat officer corps. This First Revolutionary War itself was the French respons to the Coalition's Declaration of Pilnitz (August 1791) threatening the revolutionary parliament and demanding no less than the full restauration of the Ancien Regime. Marcel Claessen