ABSTRACT
But though insurgent, Marx criticizes the conspirators for their extra-social spontaneity. As ‘officers of the insurrection’ (rather than the revolution) these conspirators mistake the adequate preparation of their conspiracy for the revolution, and thus they attempt
to launch a revolution on the spur of the moment, without the conditions for a revolution . . . They are like alchemists of the revolution . . . They leap at inventions which are supposed to work revolutionary miracles: incendiary bombs, destructive devices of magic effect, revolts which are expected to be all the more miraculous and astonishing in effect as their basis is less rational.
