Evening star., 1939-01-27
Hurt Feelings,
Not Economics, Held
Cause Of Revolution
People Under Dietotors
Suffer Willingly, but
Have Their Dignity

SuiIeI VHIinSiyg Dut
Have Their Dignity
Hurt feelings, more than economic
upsets, were described as a funda-
mental cause Of revolutions. dicta-
torships and wars in the modern
world by DR.. Harold D. Lasswell of
the staff of the William A. White
Psychiatric Foundation at the an
ual dinner of the Washington Insti-
tute Of Mental Hygiene at the Sui
grave Club last night.
This is factor, he said, which
statesmen have failed almost en-
tirely to recognize. He insisted that
population will endure almost any
degree of physical hardship so long
as it is not insulted with such terms
as unemployed" ION relief" etc.
1t is largely by sensing this factor,
he said, that such relationships as
Russia, Germany and Italy have
come into being
Ali claim that they have elimi-
mated unemployment" What they
have actually done, he said, is to
erase the insulting epithet ''unem-
ployed" Their citizens probably are
no better off economically than be-
fore in the sense of having more to
eat and wear and better houses to
live in, but they have been restored
to a sense of human dignity, of
amounting to something in the
world, which is even more important.
Unemployment" Must Go.
The great lesson to be learned
from the relationships, DR.. Lasswell
said, is that unemployment" must
be eliminated in the democracies If
they expect to survive All persons
classified as ION relief" are forced
to consider themselves as unwanted
and at the best only grudgingly tol-
Grated in the society of which they
form a part. Such feeling of in
feriority is something which the
human mind cannot endure.
Hence they constitute fertile
ground for any agitator who can
give them basis for naturalization
that the fault lies elsewhere, such
as the capitalistic system. They are
ready to rise up and destroy it, not
because it has starved them, but be-
cause it has also insulted them.
The very existence of these un-
employed, he said. forces high taxes
to feed them These fall heaviest
on the middle class. 1t, in turn,
begins to feel itself abused and to
look for a scapegoat. The agitator
who can supply it with one-as Hitler
supplied the Germans with the anti
Semetic issue-is bound to have a
large following.
Make Everyone Feel Valued.
The remedy in all cases, he said
is to organize society in such a way
that everyone will feel he is a
valued member of society, not tol-
Grated outcast. State charity must
be so disguised that one can accept
it with self-respect.
A good deal can be learned about
the behaviors of societies, he said,
by studying the behavior of the in
sane. Much insanity is the result
OF mans natural destructive tenden-
cies getting out of bounds. In the
individual these may be turned on
the self and result in suicide. Ap-
piled to society as a whole, this,
rather than revolution, might be the
normal path followed by the "in-
suited" relief worker conscious of
being social outcast. His outlook
seems to him hopeless.
The destructive tendency is re-
leased and the agitator has only to
turn it away from the self against
somebody else The same is true of
the middle classes who see no way
out of the economic chaos into which
they are forced by growing relief
burdens. A man doesn't like to hate
himself and welcomes any excuse to
turn his hate against another-such
as the aristocrat in Russia or the
Jew in Germany.
But by this time the people have
grown used to hating somebody else,
and when destruction of aristocrats
or Jews does not materially improve
the economic picture the hatred can
easily be turned against neighboring
states and result in war.
Full Stomach No Remedy.
The old theory that economies is
the determinant Of history, DR.. Lass
well said, is a dangerous half truth
since it actually causes very little
change without the psychological
hatred complex which accompanies
depression.
Actually, he said, this accentuates
the depressed economic state, since
the energies of people are turned
away from solving their real prob
lens and utilized to take revenge
on the innocent bystander.
The one great mistake, he said,
is to make the folks on relief into
class set apart from their fellows,
no matter how well they are fed
and cared for. A full stomach is
no remedy for a wounded heart.
The next step of the totalitarian
states, DR.. Lasswell predicted, will
be into garrison states unified into
purely destructive organisms under