1. The Revolutionary Mentality.
WE have just seen that the mystic elements are one of the
components of the Jacobin mentality. We shall now see that they
enter into another form of mentality which is also clearly
defined, the revolutionary mentality.
In all ages societies have contained a certain number of
restless spirits, unstable and discontented, ready to rebel
against any established order of affairs. They are actuated by
the mere love of revolt, and if some magic power could realise
all their desires they would simply revolt again.
This special mentality often results from a faulty
adaptation of the individual to his surroundings, or from an
excess of mysticism, but it may also be merely a question of
temperament or arise from pathological disturbances.
The need of revolt presents very different degrees of
intensity, from simple discontent expressed in words directed
against men and things to the need of destroying them. Sometimes
the individual turns upon himself the revolutionary frenzy that
he cannot otherwise exercise. Russia is full of these madmen,
who, not content with committing arson or throwing bombs at
hazard into the crowd, finally mutilate themselves, like the
Skopzis and other analogous sects.
These perpetual rebels are generally highly suggestible
beings, whose mystic mentality is obsessed by fixed ideas.
Despite the apparent energy indicated by their actions they are
really weak characters, and are incapable of mastering themselves
sufficiently to resist the impulses that rule them. The mystic
spirit which animates them furnishes pretexts for their violence,
and enables them to regard themselves as great reformers.
In normal times the rebels which every society contains
are restrained by the laws, by their environment—in short, by
all the usual social constraints, and therefore remain
undetected. But as soon as a time of disturbance begins these
constraints grow weaker, and the rebel can give a free reign to
his instincts. He then becomes the accredited leader of a
movement. The motive of the revolution matters little to him; he
will give his life indifferently for the red flag or the white,
or for the liberation of a country which he has heard vaguely
mentioned.
The revolutionary spirit is not always pushed to the
extremes which render it dangerous. When, instead of deriving
from affective or mystic impulses, it has an intellectual origin,
it may become a source of progress. It is thanks to those
spirits who are sufficiently independent to be intellectually
revolutionary that a civilisation is able to escape from the yoke
of tradition and habit when this becomes too heavy. The
sciences, arts, and industries especially have progressed
by the aid of such men. Galileo, Lavoisier, Darwin, and Pasteur
were such revolutionaries.
Although it is not necessary that a nation should possess
any large number of such spirits, it is very necessary that it
should possess some. Without them men would still be living in
caves.
The revolutionary audacity which results in discoveries
implies very rare faculties. It necessitates notably an
independence of mind sufficient to escape from the influence of
current opinions, and a judgement that can grasp, under
superficial analogies, the hidden realities. This form of
revolutionary spirit is creative, while that examined above is
destructive.
The revolutionary mentality may, therefore, be compared to
certain physiological states in the life of the individual which
are normally useful, but which, when exaggerated, take a
pathological form which is always hurtful.