How Most Political Revolutions Get Out Of Control

Winston Churchill famously said, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Unfortunately, many Americans don’t recognize some of the most horrific mistakes made in history, and this is particularly true when it comes to revolutions.

In early February, comedian Bill Maher proved Churchill right on his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher. He opened his “New Rule” segment by saying, “If you’re part of today’s woke revolution, you need to study the part of revolutions when they spin out of control, because the revolutionaries get so drunk on their own purifying elixir, they imagine they can reinvent the very nature of human beings.”

Maher continued, “The problem with communism and with some very recent ideologies here at home is that they think they can change reality by screaming at it. That you can bend human nature by holding your breath, but that’s the difference between reality and your mommy.”

With his signature candor and brash sense of humor, Maher goes on to detail how today’s woke revolution is similar to previous revolutions in history, particularly the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Though the comparisons are terrifying and feel like they’re out of an Orwellian nightmare, it’s hard to refute his points.

He later says, “Good intentions can turn into the same arrogance that your revolution is so f***ing awesome, and your generation is so mind-bendingly improved that you have bequeathed the world with a new kind of human.”

When most Americans think of revolutions, they think of the victory of the American Revolution. Yes, the American Revolution is an important part of history, but also it’s important to acknowledge that the American Revolution is the exception to the rule. While the American Revolution ended in the creation of the United States of America, most revolutions end with a system that’s often more oppressive than the previous one because many revolutionaries get drunk on their own power, forgetting that it’s impossible to change human nature.

It all boils down to an inconvenient truth: True and positive change takes time. When people get impatient, they often turn to violence and terror to enforce their ideas, creating an environment that’s more oppressive than the one they once swore to destroy. Though going through every political revolution would turn this article into a book longer than War and Peace, here’s a brief breakdown of four major revolutions that went horribly wrong, how they all failed to learn from each other, and how the same mistakes were made that resulted in the death of millions.

The French Revolution

Like many revolutions, the history of the French Revolution is long and complicated, but most agree that everything went wrong with the Reign of Terror between 1793 and 1794. Though the French Revolution began in 1789 when the National Assembly wanted to create a constitutional monarchy or a republic, the radical Jacobins eventually made the revolution a bloody affair. Most historians believe the Reign of Terror began in January 1793 when King Louis XVI was publicly executed (followed by his wife, Marie Antoinette, in October 1793), and the far-left Jacobins got drunk with power after the monarchs died.

Prominent Jacobin Maximilian Robespierre led the Committee of Public Safety, a group of 12 men (who, coincidentally, were also Jacobins) that oversaw the French government, leading to the Reign of Terror. In the span of 10 months, between 30,000 and 50,000 French people were killed (almost entirely by the guillotine) for counter-revolutionary activity. The offenses ranged from rebelling against the revolution to minor offenses like making a mild complaint about the government.

Ironically, the Reign of Terror eventually came for Robespierre, who was executed via guillotine in July 1794. After the Reign of Terror fizzled out, the revolution ended when Napoleon Bonaparte took over in 1799, crowning himself Emperor of France in 1804. After all the blood spilled in the name of the French Revolution, France was a monarchy again.

The French Revolution is a cautionary tale of how power can go to your head and how quickly radicals can take over a revolutionary cause, but many in history did not learn from the mistakes of the French Revolution.

The Russian Revolution

Though you could argue that the Russian Revolution was out of control from the beginning due to multiple political parties vying for power, the violence escalated when the Bolshevik Party took over in October 1917.

Before the Bolshevik takeover, there was hope for peace and democracy as a result of the Russian Revolution. After Tsar Nicholas II abdicated the throne in March 1917, a Provisional Government was formed with several different political parties (from moderate to liberal to leftist). One of the leftist parties, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, got tired of waiting for the democratic process and overthrew the Provisional Government in a bloodless coup in October 1917. Though Lenin and the Bolsheviks promised “peace, land, and bread” to the Russian people, it didn’t take long for things to go awry.

The Russian Civil War began in late 1917 and resulted in a Bolshevik victory. During the Civil War and afterward, the Bolsheviks launched the "Red Terror" by arresting and executing those who disagreed with or expressed dissent against the Bolsheviks. Those who were lucky enough to avoid death were sent to prison camps, also known as gulags. 

The Bolsheviks launched the "Red Terror," arresting and executing those who disagreed with them. 

The Red Terror set the precedence for Stalin’s Great Purges of the 1930s. It’s estimated that 750,000 people were executed during the purges, which encouraged Soviet citizens to turn in friends, family, and neighbors who weren’t loyal to the government. This spread fear and intense paranoia among the Russian people, forcing those who disagreed with Stalin to comply in fear for their lives.

While the start of the Russian Revolution provided a chance for democracy in Russia, it didn’t take long for radical communists to take over and create a tyrannical government that was arguably worse (and more oppressive) than the tsarist government. While the Bolsheviks preached that they wanted equality for all, their mission to create a communist country led to mass suppression, violence, and death. This is the perfect example of how things can go wrong in a communist system – trying to force people to go against human nature and enter a collective society will inevitably lead to tyranny.

The Cuban Revolution

It’s no secret that Cuba was a military dictatorship under Fulgencio Batista, who fled Cuba on December 31, 1958, before Fidel Castro took over on January 1, 1959. Most historians place the start of the Cuban Revolution on July 26, 1953, when the guerilla rebels led by Castro stormed the Moncada barracks. The mission failed; most of the rebels were killed, and the rest were thrown in jail, including Fidel Castro and his brother, Raul. 

The Castro brothers were released in 1955 and met Argentinian doctor and aspiring revolutionary Che Guevara in Mexico, leading them to make plans for a more successful revolution when they returned to Cuba. While Fidel was in prison, he learned the teachings of Marx and embraced Marxist-Leninism, the same political and economic ideology held in the Soviet Union at the time. 

Fidel led the guerilla revolutionaries, now named the 26th of July Movement, into the Sierra Maestra mountains in 1956, and began launching guerilla attacks, gaining public sympathy amid the growing disapproval of Batista and the Cuban government. They eventually succeeded and celebrated by claiming victory in the streets of Havana, Cuba’s capital, on January 1, 1959, after Batista fled the country. While Fidel promised democracy to the Cuban people, he created a regime that was just as oppressive (if not more oppressive) than Batista’s. Through censorship, propaganda, fear, and brutality, Fidel created the most brutal communist regime in the Western hemisphere. Political dissidents were jailed, tortured, and murdered, and it’s estimated that Fidel ordered the deaths of 10,000 to 100,000 Cubans.

Chinese Communist Revolution, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution

Before the Chinese Communist Revolution and the Cultural Revolution, China experienced a revolution in 1911 to overthrow the Qing Dynasty that created a temporary republic, but this was followed by the Chinese Civil War and the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949. The revolution ended with a communist victory, and Mao Zedong created the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Though Mao promised freedom and democracy, he would go on to create a totalitarian communist government motivated by fear and terror. 

Inspired by Stalin’s Five-Year Plans, Mao decided to launch some of his own to encourage agricultural innovation in China. While his first five-year plan was relatively successful, his second five-year plan, infamously known as the Great Leap Forward, was catastrophic.

Mao promised freedom and democracy, but he created a totalitarian communist government ruled by terror. 

During the Great Leap Forward from 1958 to 1961, Mao attempted to industrialize the Chinese economy by collectivizing farms, forcing farmers to live in communes, and forcing some to work industrialized jobs. Since the communes were poorly run and there wasn’t enough food for China’s massive population, this led to widespread famine, and it’s estimated that 30 million people died as a result of the Great Leap Forward and the famine that inevitably ensued.

After the failure of the Great Leap Forward, Mao was determined to rebrand himself and his communist ideology through the Chinese Cultural Revolution. In order to solidify his legacy and cult of personality, the Cultural Revolution was set to destroy "capitalist influences and bourgeois thinking" through mass propaganda and terror. Mao established the Red Guards, a youth organization set to implement Maoist principles, but their true purpose was to purge those who opposed Mao and his ideology (sound familiar?). Millions were sent to reeducation camps,  and it’s estimated that two million were killed as a result. The Cultural Revolution lasted from 1966 until Mao’s death in 1976. To this day, China is still ruled by totalitarianism.

Similar to the revolutionary leaders before him (fun fact: Mao idolized Stalin), Mao promised peace, equality, and democracy, only to provide his people with a totalitarian government that killed millions and suppressed dissident voices. Though not all revolutions end like these, it’s no coincidence that the French, Russian, Cuban, and Chinese Revolutions all suffered the same brutal fate.

Closing Thoughts

When you compare these revolutions, the parallels are apparent. They all used fear to keep those who disagreed with them in line, often outlawing opposing parties and criminalizing dissidence. The Russians and the Chinese went out of their way to impose their new and radical ideologies on others through force, resulting in mass famines from the collectivization of farms. The French and the Cubans promised a new form of government, only to get impatient while waiting for change and getting drunk on their own power, turning their countries into totalitarian states that they vowed to destroy only years earlier. From what Bill Maher calls the “woke revolution” that cancels anyone who disagrees with its ideology to the political sphere where Russian president Vladimir Putin is distorting historical facts to push his own agenda through propaganda, these terrifying events from history are happening once again, right before our eyes.

Most revolutions start with good intentions to change the world, but there will always be people who want to take advantage of it for their own gain. Some people mistakenly believe they can change human nature, and some people get drunk on power, and it’s these flaws in leadership that lead to revolutions getting out of control. From introducing a new and radical ideology through force to demonizing all political dissidents, it’s important for those who know history to be brave enough to speak out when they sense something is heading in the wrong direction.

Most of us want to make the world a better place, but it’s important to be pragmatic because history often shows that the road to catastrophe is paved with calls for positive change. While there is no short-term solution to this problem (or to most major problems), the biggest mistake one could make is to refuse to learn from history. If we take history seriously, it’s less likely that catastrophic mistakes will be made on the road to progress and change.

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