Why do good people follow bad leaders? Why do people sometimes follow along with a crowd instead of making our own decisions? What might cause a person to go against their own feelings and do something they know to be wrong? ​

Look at the painting the lictors bring to brutus the bodies of his sons by jacques-louis david (1789). the most likely message this painting sends to french citizens is that one must be prepared to sacrifice their own children to preserve france. loyalty to one’s country stops short of sacrificing one’s own children. brutality is an integral part of revolution and the reign of terror. no one is immune to death, not even the leaders of the revolution.