“The Jacobin [1] could tell you not only the system he would rebel against, but (what was more important) the system he would not rebel against, the system he would trust. But the new rebel is a skeptic, and will not entirely trust anything. He has no loyalty; therefore he can never be really a revolutionist [2]. And the fact that he doubts everything really gets in his way when he wants to denounce anything. For all denunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind; and the modern revolutionist doubts not only the institution he denounces, but the doctrine by which he denounces it.
Thus he writes one book complaining that the imperial oppression insults the purity of women, and then he writes another book (about the sex problem) in which he insults it himself.
He curses the Sultan because Christian girls lose their virginity, and then curses Mrs. Grundy [3] because they keep it.
As a politician, he will cry out that war is a waste of life, and then, as a philosopher, that all life is a waste of time.
A Russian pessimist will denounce a policeman for killing a peasant, and then prove by the highest philosophical principles that the peasant ought to have killed himself.
A man denounces marriage as a lie, and then denounces aristocratic profligates [4] for treating it as a lie.
He calls a flag a bauble [5], and then blames the oppressors of Poland or Ireland because they take away that bauble.
The man of this school goes first to a political meeting, where he complains that the savages are treated as if they were beasts; then he takes his hat and umbrella and goes on to a scientific meeting, where he proves that they practically are beasts.
In short, the modern revolutionist, being an infinite skeptic, is always engaged in undermining his own mines. In his book on politics he attacks men for trampling on morality; in his book on ethics he attacks morality for trampling on men.
Therefore the modern man in revolt has become practically useless for all purposes of revolt. By rebelling against everything he has lost his right to rebel against anything.”
_______________
GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 1908
[1] Jacobin - A member of an extremist or radical political group; especially: a member of such a group advocating egalitarian democracy and engaging in terrorist activities during the French Revolution of 1789. Merriam-Webster Dictionary
[2] Revolutionist - One who brings about a major of fundamental change. Merriam-Webster Dictionary
[3] Mrs. Grundy - One marked by prudish conventionality in personal conduct. Merriam-Webster Dictionary
[4] Profligates - People given to wildly extravagant and usually grossly self-indulgent expenditure. Merriam-Webster Dictionary
[5] Bauble - a trinket; or a fool's scepter; or something of trifling appeal. Merriam-Webster Dictionary
