A. Slow-speed Revolutionaries and
"Semi-counterrevolutionaries"
What distinguishes the revolutionary who has followed the rhythm of the
fast march from the person who is gradually becoming a revolutionary according
to the rhythm of the slow march? When the revolutionary process began in the
former, it found little or no resistance. Virtue and truth lived a superficial
life in his soul. They were as dry wood that any spark could set afire. On the
contrary, when this process takes place slowly, it is because the spark of the
Revolution encountered, at least in part, green wood. In other words, it has
confronted considerable truth or virtue that remains hostile to the action of
the revolutionary spirit. A soul in this situation is divided and lives between
two opposing principles, that of the Revolution and that of order. The
coexistence of these two principles may give rise to very diverse situations.
a. The slow-speed revolutionary' allows himself to be carried along by
the Revolution, which he opposes only with the resistance of inertia.
b.
The slow-speed revolutionary who has counter-revolutionary "clots
"also allows himself to be carried along by the Revolution, but on some
concrete point he rejects it. Thus, for example, he will be a socialist in
every respect except that he retains a liking for aristocratic manners.
Depending on the case, he may even go so far as to attack socialist vulgarity.
This is undoubtedly a resistance. But it is a resistance on a question of
detail, made up of habits and impressions. It does not return to principles.
For this very reason it is a resistance without any great importance, one that
will die with the individual. If it should occur in a social group, sooner or
later, by violence or persuasion, the Revolution inexorably will dismantle it
in one or several generations.
c.
The “semi-Counterrevolutionary” 15 differs from the preceding only in
that the process of "coagulation" was more forceful in him and
reverted to basic principles only some principles, of course, and not all of
them. In him, the reaction against the Revolution is more pertinacious, more
lively. It is an obstacle that is not merely inertia. His conversion to an
entirely counter-revolutionary position is easier, at least in thesis. Any
excess of the Revolution might cause in him a complete transformation, a
crystallization of his good tendencies into an attitude of unshakeable
firmness. However, until this felicitous transformation takes place, the
"semi-counter-revolutionary" cannot be considered a soldier of the
Counter-Revolution.
The
ease with which both the slow-speed revolutionary and the
"semi-counter-revolutionary" accept the conquests of the Revolution
is typical of their conformity.
While affirming, for example, the thesis of the union of Church and
State, they live with indifference in a regime of their separation, without any
serious effort to make possible an eventual restoration of the union of the two
under suitable conditions.
|