Book Review: The Psychology of Revolutions

I believe while our planet is revolving, some revolution also is in the making. (In fact the essence of every revolution can be thought of as our dormant desire to engage with the irrational. Think of the middle ages, where it would have been irrational to be a progressive one, and few became pioneers of great repute by being so. And think of the current times when there is a visible urge to embrace the past, which also is exactly for the same reason)

I happened to come across a book, “The Psychology of Revolutions” by Gustav le Bon, a treatise about the many facets of a revolution.

It begins with a discussion about the general characteristics of revolutions. Which are:

i) a sudden transformation of ideas, beliefs, or doctrines

ii) a large crowd swayed by sentiments but waiting for a leader; even though the spark may be of rational origin

iii) the slower and more unremarkable, its events and occurrences, the more long lasting, the effects

The book then goes on to examine the role, people play. A realization of history and the appreciation of stability of the old, and a desire to embrace the future, needs to meet at a point, which should be letting the savage in every one, free to bloom. People behave differently, the book notes, when in individual capacity, and as part of a crowd. In this connection an interesting experiment is done by Prof Glosson, showing the power of suggestion and leadership. “I prepared a bottle filled with distilled water carefully wrapped in cotton and packed in a box. After several other experiments I stated that I wished to measure the rapidity with which an odour would diffuse itself through the air, and asked those present to raise their hands the moment they perceived the odour… . I took out the bottle and poured the water on the cotton, turning my head away during the operation, then took up a stop-watch and awaited the result… . I explained that I was absolutely sure that no one present had ever smelt the odour of the chemical composition I had spilled… . At the end of fifteen seconds the majority of those in front had held up their hands, and in forty seconds the odour had reached the back of the hall by fairly regular waves. About three-quarters of those present declared that they perceived the odour. A larger number would doubtless have succumbed to suggestion, if at the end of a minute I had not been forced to stop the experiment, some of those in the front rows being unpleasantly affected by the odour, and wishing to leave the hall.”

What follows is surprising, the book says. The earliest of revolutions took up the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity. But over time, both equality and fraternity, the natural elements of living beings, are being discarded. We however hold on to equality, a contradiction, both in biology and in economics.

I agree with the author, But the premise is to find these as a peculiarity of humans, being a species with abstract needs. And I disagree here. The answer to the questions raised in this book is well covered by my reasoning about human nature, as presented in my book, The Unsure Male.