B X Lee -- The Psychological Underpinning of Successful Revolutions
The Psychological Underpinning of Successful Revolutions
An Analysis of the Spirit of the Times, Then and Now
As this revolutionary month draws to a close, I find myself reflecting on how much has been written, taught, and celebrated about the grand political events of 1776 in America and 1789 in France. We know their dates, their battles, their declarations, their constitutions, and the towering figures who came to symbolize them. We commemorate their anniversaries, but how much do we understand the psychological sources—really, resources—that underpinned these revolutions?
Oppressive regimes are, in many ways, like violent offenders: they cease violating the rights of others only when they are stopped from doing so, and only to the extent that they are stopped. They do not relinquish power voluntarily, nor do they awaken one morning with a newfound respect for justice. The question, then, is: how can those who have been systematically deprived of their rights, resources, and confidence overcome their oppressors without succumbing to learned helplessness and despair? The answer begins with a pivotal psychological realization, as Henry David Thoreau observed: “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.”
True wealth is not measured by what one possesses, but by the freedom one possesses from the need to possess. Those who seek to subjugate by accumulating more power, more wealth, and more mechanisms of control, while simultaneously depriving others of every means of resistance, is not a sign of strength but of profound psychological poverty. It reflects an impoverished mind that depends on external domination, because it lacks internal freedom.
The truly resourceful mind is bound to no such compulsions. Its greatest strength is in its independence. The most powerful liberation available to any human being is therefore not political, economic, or even physical—it is the liberation of the mind itself.
Long before oppressive institutions collapse, something changes within the human spirit. People cease to accept the narratives that have justified their oppression and reclaim their ability to perceive reality without indoctrination, to think independently rather than obediently, and to act according to conscience rather than fear. This is the deeper story that history often neglects. Revolutions therefore begin when human beings discover that the greatest resource they possess cannot be confiscated: the freedom of their own minds, which refuses submission even before the outer chains have been broken.
This is what our citizen ancestors possessed, both in America and in France.
The success of the American Revolution (1775-1783) cannot be explained solely by military strategy or material resources. In fact, the British Empire had the world’s most powerful navy, a well-trained professional army, greater wealth, and a population several times larger than the thirteen colonies. Indeed, materially, the Continental Army suffered repeated defeats, shortages of food and supplies, and continued risk of collapse. Yet, it managed to turn weakness into strength, through the realization that it did not have to defeat Britain; it only needed to survive long enough for the conquerors to conclude that the war was too costly to continue.
General George Washington had the wisdom to see that winning every battle was not as crucial as preserving his army, which frustrated British hopes for a decisive victory. Retreating at times for self-preservation, and inspiring his patchwork army to survive shortages, setbacks, and harsh winters—such as the one at Valley Forge—in turn inspired Patriots throughout a vast territory, who contributed campaigns of guerillas (Spanish for “little wars”). Thus, sustained discipline in large battles as well as tactics used since the Gallic Wars, when Vercingetorix confronted Julius Caesar, or the fourth-rate army of the Vietnamese—and now the Iranians—against a first-rate military in modern times, were decisive. The colonies’ determination was enough to inspire Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, and subsequently France, to offer assistance in money, weapons, military advisors, and fleets of soldiers, which would turn the war global, with Spain and the Dutch Republic joining the cause, and then the Caribbean, the Atlantic, India, and the Mediterranean all fighting Britain. This is how a rebellion that began with a handful of colonies achieved an unlikely victory against the mightiest empire in the world.
This helped inspire the French Revolution (1789-1799), an uprising against the most powerful monarchy in the world. The citoyens survived—and eventually defeated—not only the French monarchy but also coalitions of Europe’s major powers, because the realization that the people vastly outnumbered their rulers motivated mass popular mobilization. The population was alarmed when Louis XVI gathered the gardes françaises, or the French infantry, together with professional Swiss mercenaries and German regiments, to surround the increasingly restless capital of Paris.
Rather than concede defeat, Parisians organized. The gardes françaises then joined with the revolutionaries, refused to act against civilians, and chose solidarity over isolation. The philosophy of the lumières, which awakened them to new political rights and a new fraternity, elevated the morale of otherwise poorly-equipped or inexperienced citizen armies. This new Enlightenment, sweeping across the country, was a consciousness more powerful than all the wealth of the invading monarchies, merely trying to preserve or restore an outdated kingship. One country’s levée en masse, or a mass conscription that considered military service a duty on the part of all citizens, created field armies larger than all other European rivals combined. This is how the French Revolution, which many rulers expected to collapse quickly, came to survive and, together with the United States, inspired the world toward republicanism and democracy.
These stories speak directly to our time because, somewhere along the way, we forgot to renew our revolutions. We forgot that the political transformations that followed were an external expression of an internal psychological awakening. Political liberty is never a permanent inheritance; it survives only so long as each generation rediscovers and lives the psychological foundations upon which it rests. Constitutions do not create free people; free people create constitutions. Laws do not produce courage; courage gives birth to just laws. Every enduring revolution begins not on the battlefield but within the human mind, where the desire for dignity becomes stronger than the will to enslavement.
Psychological freedom makes political freedom possible. By preserving that inner freedom, a people preserves self-government. By recovering it after a portion has been surrendered, it reclaims it again. Individuals who once believed themselves powerless discover that they are the true seat of power, and that authority ultimately depends on the consent of the governed. Every great revolution is preceded—and sustained—by a revolution of consciousness, and recognition of this truth is what sets us free.
Discussion about this post
https://bandyxlee.substack.com/p/the-psychological-underpinning-of
Great thanks to you yet again Dr. Lee.
A fantastic essay and very much appreciated.
from Australia
… 🦘🦘🦘
The challenge with revolutions is that the spirit of "ressentiment" that often feeds these movements are difficult to control and often leads to bad consequences. The French Revolution, for example, not only led to the terror but also to the Napoleonic tyranny and wars that savaged Europe to the loss of almost 3 million lives.
We are a nation that has enjoyed probably the greatest prosperity and security in human history, but we have been left existentially fragile and spiritually impoverished. I am reminded of the quote of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart.”
All of us have much inner work to do...