Three Generational Models of Revolution

Since late May of this year, it has felt like the United States is in the very early stages of a French or Spanish style revolution, complete with church desecration, monument removal, and the canceling of art that is too connected to the old order. To see it come as rapidly as it has is shocking. Not simply that they have demanded as much as they have, but how successful they have been in getting it accomplished. In order to understand just how far this can go, we have to look at three models based around the amount of time between the initial revolutionary victory and the revolution moving into its most destructive period. What follows is a brief outline of how each model functions and examples of each.

The First Generational Model of Revolution

In the First Generational Model of Revolution, the revolution hits its most destructive phase at the same time the revolution is initially begun. This is the most common and in many ways is the most naturalistic model for good reason, revolutionaries that are able to overturn the Ancient Régime in France or Tsarist Russia will be full of revolutionary fervor and will want to take the revolution to its conclusion immediately. To them, they have poured too much time, money, and blood. Plus, they are keenly aware that the old order still has plenty of support, perhaps even from a plurality and will thus want to end that potential opposition. This is why the same revolutionaries who overthrew the Bourbon dynasty in France also targeted Christians for murder and tried to change the calendar. It is why the early days of the Spanish Revolution was marked by the rape of nuns and the burning of churches. It is why the Soviet Union during its early period saw the rise of perverse anti-religious art and the establishment of the gulag system.

The major drawback to this model is that the entirety of the population was raised under the old order, there is only so much the average person is willing to undergo before they want to return to the old order. As such, in the First Generational Model of Revolution there tends to be either a major rightwing backlash, as in the case of the French and Spanish Revolutions which ended with the Bourbons restored in the first case and Franco coming to power in the second one. Even if the rightwing backlash never comes, the revolutionaries have to eventually start backtracking to avoid complete societal collapse, as what happened with the Soviet Union beginning with World War II.   

The Second Generational Model of Revolution

Due to the drawbacks of the First Generational Model of Revolution, the Second Generational Model of Revolution was developed. Under the Second Generational Model of Revolution, the revolutionaries will take power and still cause problems, but the most destructive period of the revolution will not come until later, after the first generation of children who were raised with no memory of the old order have come of age, as they will be able to stomach a greater destruction of the old order. The model for the Second Generational Model of Revolution is China and, specifically, the Cultural Revolution which began in 1966 – note this was 17 years after the initial communist victory in China. Remember, Chinese culture is thousands of years old, Mao understood that such a culture could not be radically altered overnight, so he waited until a new generation, one without any memory of the old order before the Communist Party takeover, feeling, correctly that they would have less attachments to the old culture of China. Thus, they would be more willing to destroy it – and, try they did, destroying religious and cultural artifacts that can never be replaced.

But, as with the First Generational Model of Revolution, the Second Generational Model has the same basic drawback, though not as widespread. Under it, all but the youngest have some memory of the old order and are less willing to wantonly destroy it. So, eventually the revolution has only so far it can go, which is why soon after Mao’s death, Deng Xiaoping came to power. Despite still being a communist, he very was not filled with the hatred of traditional Chinese culture that Mao and his followers in the Cultural Revolution had. Had the Cultural Revolution continued, the communists may have been successful in destroying every element of Chinese culture.

The Third/Fourth Generational Model of Revolution

Because there will be limits to how much the public is willing to take in the Second Generational Model of Revolution, after all, all but the youngest can remember life before the revolution, the Third/Fourth Generational Model of Revolution was created. Under this model of revolution, the revolutionaries will take power and then wait. Once only the oldest segment of society can remember life before the revolution and the potential of backlash is minimized, then the destruction can commence.

This model is being employed on the United States in 2020. The United States already went through a revolution in roughly the years between 1964-1968, in which local government was rendered toothless, the traditional immigration policy of the U.S. was dismantled, property rights were weakened, and church after church began jettisoning traditional morality, either de jure through doctrinal changes or de facto through their silence. But, during this phase, the revolution has still not reached its most destructive phase. In 1969, no one with any mainstream credibility would have suggested removing statues of George Washington or even Robert E Lee.

But, a fundamental change had still occurred and over time more and more of those who could remember the old order have died, leaving those who cannot remember the old order in their place. And, these replacements have less of an issue of destroying any vestiges of the old order. Remember, the 18 year-old in 1968 is 70 today. How much opposition to a violent revolution can a 70 year-old realistically make? This is why the revolution has gone as far as it has, and in such a short period of time. The bloc most willing to be counter-revolutionaries, those with strong personal attachments to the old order, are all very old.

Are there exceptions? Sure, but as we have seen, it hardly rises to the level of the Nationalists of Spain.

My intention here is not to send anyone into despair- it is a sin to despair. But, we must be sober minded about what we are up against, why they have gained so much over the course of just two full months as of this writing, and why we have seen so little backlash. The very people who should be the most dedicated counter-revolutionaries are too old. This is likely why this phase of the revolution will continue.

The enemy hates Heritage America. They hate the history, culture, traditions, and religion of Heritage America. And, for as bad as things got in France, Russia, Spain, or China, there were limits as how far they could go. It took them decades to seriously begin removing Confederate monuments, even though they were working on it openly. It took them a few weeks after that to remove a statue of Teddy Roosevelt.

More will likely come; they’ve improved their tactics over the past few decades.

-By Harmonica