Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

408 SOCIAL REVOLUTIONS
We are given similar insights into the primary motives of mostly South
European, urban rioters in a study by E. J. Hobsbawm, who exchanged
observations with G. Rude during the course of his work.
Primitive rebels and social bandits
Hobsbawm attempts to portray from primary sources the thoughts and
feelings, the targets and methods, of socially minded bandits and other
primitive rebels in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in whom he
recognizes archaic forms of social movements. He is mainly concerned
with western and southern Europe, especially Italy, since the French
Revolution.
On the general question of the role of envy in revolutionary processes,
I consider the following to be among his most instructive observations.
Both before and after the French Revolution, the menu peupZe, the
populace, the small craftsmen, manual workers and those who eked out a
meagre existence as day-labourers in a major European city, particularly
when this was the seat of supreme political or ecclesiastic authority,
periodically resorted to rioting, in order to extort from the upper classes
or from the court those privileges, commissions, cheap provisions, etc.
to which they had become accustomed. 13 Basically it is in the interests of
all, both upper classes and masses, that a balance should be maintained
in the city. The revolts are accepted, even expected, as though they were
natural phenomena. Everyone knows what must be done. The social
system is not destroyed; indeed, the rebels would have no idea of what
structural alterations they should demand. 14
Even long after the French Revolution these insurrections, as the
author demonstrates, lacked all egalitarian impulse. 15 More was wanted
from the wealthier circles and classes, but not their demise; nor did
anyone want to join them. 16 To the little man in the city, unlike the
peasants, or small-holder, the attainment of equality is not really con-
13 E. J. Hobsbawm, Social Bandits and Primitive Rebels. Studies in Archaic Forms of
Social Movement in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Glencoe (111.), 1959, pp. 114 f.
14 Op. cit., p. 121.
15 Op. cit., p. 122.
16 Op. cit., pp. 116, 118.