1: Scientific and Political Revolutions
Classification of Revolutions
The term "revolution" is commonly applied to a sudden political upheaval, but may also be applied to any form of sudden transformation that involves beliefs, ideas, or doctrines. A revolution is not the mere replacement of a thought or belief, but the replacement of a way of thinking, or a system of beliefs.
While the original of a revolution may be perfectly rational, it can only spread to a large number of people by becoming a sentiment, which is a negotiation upon rational premises that consumes the irrational. If the ideas of revolution fail to spread to the masses, the result is merely a discontented indivudal.
At the time of the French Revolution, rational logic demonstrated the inconveniences of the existing regime and gave rise to the desire to replace it with a society modeled upon a different set of virtues and principles. But in spreading to the multitudes, this logic was corrupted and compromised by emotion. Were it not, it would have remained a cold and dispassionate analysis of the status quo, which lacks the capacity to motivate men to action.
And this is the nature of revolution: to replace one regime with another requires both logic and emotion. A logical analysis without emotional appeal does not lead to action, and an emotional appeal without logical analysis leads merely to rebellion and a brief period of civil disobedience.
Le Bon suggests that "the sudden political revolutions that strike the historian most forcibly are often the least important." That is to say that the action that precipitates from a change in philosophy is of less significant than the change in philosophy. The real revolution occurs in the mind, and the actions that precipitate are mere consequences. Just the motion of the human body is merely the consequence of the thoughts of the human mind.
He also pauses to consider the difference between revolution and evolution. They are essentially the same, though evolution takes place more slowly and with less resistance as it gathers support and spreads at a very slow pace. Revolution is merely evolution over a shorter period of time, in which the ideas that would have spread slowly are merely accelerated, and opposition is overthrown rather than undermined.
But to the point: when we consider only the mental process that precedes the actions of a revolution, we can discern a few specific categories: scientific, political, and religious.
Scientific Revolutions
Le Bon considers scientific revolutions to be "by far the most important" although they get very little attention: the masses are not moved to protest or revolt, but the discoveries of science alter our perspective in fundamental and far-reaching ways.
Consider how our conception of the universe has changed, or the fact that science by its very nature disproves religious principles and have given mankind a sense of empowerment, replacing his former helplessness and abject subordination to those who claimed knowledge and influence over capricious mystical forces.
Scientific revolutions are more in the nature of evolution on account of their slowness, though at times the pace of science causes a more dramatic upheaval, as could be seen with the discoveries of Darwin, Pasteur, and others who have called into question our fundamental beliefs.
Scientific revolution is fundamentally intellectual, as it rarely appeals to our sentiments or beliefs, but to cold and passionless logic.
Political and Religious Revolutions
Whereas science deals in fact, revolutions of a political and religious nature are based on beliefs - ideas held to be true in the absence of evidence. Reason plays but a small role in their genesis.
He refers to an earlier book, "Opinions and Beliefs" in which he suggested that political and religious belief is entirely irrational, but excites the emotions to a degree that logic cannot reach, and such beliefs are held with such ferocity that a man would be ready to sacrifice his interests, happiness, and even his life for the triumph of his faith.
Moreover, beliefs are not subject to argument: they are clung to vehemently, which explains the violence, hatred, and persecution that accompany such revolutions, which are invariably violent.
Where the various political and religions beliefs are different in superficial ways, they have a common origin, a common character, and obey the same laws: they have no affinity with rational logic, but demand that logic be rejected.
Because religion and politics rely upon obedience, they necessarily begin from the top of society rather than the bottom. There is no great uprising of the people of their own accord, as they merely fall in line behind the leadership who define the beliefs to which the masses are demanded to blindly accept and obey.
Political revolutions necessarily involve military forces. Those who hold power by force can only be removed by a greater force than they possess. In this sense all political revolutions are democratic, though the voting process is merely in the choice of those who bear arms to support one cause or the other. Government is established by this means, and is destroyed by this means.
Discontent alone can give birth to an uprising, a rebellion, or a revolt. These are not meant to supplant the existing regime but merely to resist it, to express frustration with certain of its policies, and perhaps to demand some minor amendment or reform that leaves the body of government intact.
To become a revolution, the discontent must be paired with an ideology that defines the new system with which the previous one will be replaced. The discontent must result in a sense that amendment and reform are insufficient to address the grievances of the people.
The Results of Political Revolutions
When a political uprising the previous regime, its work is but half finished, as it will then seek to organize society in accordance with its own interest, primarily that of those individuals and groups who supported the revolution.
In some instances, the demand to remove the previous regime matures in the demand to remove all its supporters - to exile or exterminate the leaders and prominent figures of the previous regime, and in some cases the extermination of all its supporters.
It is little wonder that one tyranny supplants another, such that however benign the ideology of a political movement, it takes on a totalitarian and intolerant character once it has come to power.
In such instances, the conquered have no hope of pity or clemency - as these appeals to logic are ignored in a movement supported by irrational emotion.
However, there are few revolutions that go to their extreme, and most are satisfied simply to install a new tyrant to rule, though even then it tends to rule more harshly over those who supported the previous regime, and the society that results grants privileges to supporters at the expense of all others, whether in reward of past support or expectation of future support.
In the case of the French revolution, it was rather well that the previous regime had granted privilege to so few, and that those few contributed little to society. The nobility could be exterminated, while the peasantry remained largely untouched, as it was largely presumed even those peasants who had supported the previous regime did so against their will.
Religious Revolutions
Le Bon had suggested three forms of revolution, and in this chapter has discussed scientific and political. The third form, religious revolution, has a character so peculiar as to merit its own chapter, which follows hence.