Observation of political radicalisation among Parisians suggests a militant-like ideology of fervour and few boundaries lacking tolerance for compromise. Historian Robert Darnton challenges the very nature of what made France revolutionary. Notably, Darnton alludes to a revolutionary spirit through devout political allegiance to the National Convention is a consequence of the revolution’s cultural spillover on identity. While membership into political clubs remained limited, a large radicalising factor of the revolution came through its temporal changes to the calendar, whereby the way citizens perceived time and space was fundamentally orientated around the celebration of values dedicated to the revolution. To some degree this combined temporal-cultural factor bound the sans-culotte most successfully and remains emblematic of what Darnton describes as “The Kiss of Lamourette”, an expression for fraternity, or need for brotherhood in crisis. Darnton insists how this phenomenon not only swept like a “hurricane” amounting to a “seismic shift” in revolutionary identity and purpose, as it unified many Parisians under their complete isolation from the European powers, while also setting precedence for an event that would permanently mark the historical timeline.

To a large degree, revolutionary spirit became militant by 1793 and necessary for France’s defence. However, such indispensable beliefs became fanatical in the Terror of 1794 as some victims of political trials attribute their wrongdoings to the progress of the revolution. Such is the final publication by Condorcet during his hiding. Condorcet contemplates on a yet to be decided “limit” on “perfecting the human faculties.” Condorcet recalls the revolution as “progress” to the human spirits necessary refinement. For Condorcet, sacrifice has contributed to the survival of the revolution and value in mankind as his cause is beyond nature. Any return would send the revolution in “oblivion.” Condorcet recognises that while his death will make him a victim to the slaughter, his sacrifice for the revolution will however survive him for the betterment of humanity inferring collectivist spirit even among the condemned.

On the other hand, statistician Richard Louie examines a positive skew in convicted offenders with capital offences of ‘incidence’ charged with the Law of the 22. Overwhelmingly, figures favour of working-class causalities amounting to 48% of the total recorded executions. These figures also suggest that the paranoia of the Terror had greater consequences on poorer classes. Of those caught in the crossfire, working class wife Noirette Blancheton is beheaded for participation in an anti-Jacobin riot suggesting that revolutionary spirit was not universal among all Parisians or French, and thereof greater affliction in vulnerable communities. In instances of distinct anti-revolutionary motive such as the attempted assassination on Robespierre by Cecile Renault, her father, brother, and aunt were held collectively culpable. Ultimately, the intensity of the Terror became part of daily lives that it altered their perception of death. Moreover, while such radicalism technically achieved Robespierre’s call for terrifying virtue to deter threat, it did not provide any framework for moving beyond a state of paranoia.