However the party that founds its rule on resentment will
never feel at ease in the world that it creates. It will be like the puritan,
as defined by H . L. Mencken, subject to 'the haunting fear that someone,
somewhere, might be happy'. It will suspect that people are proceeding with the
old way of life, expressing their energies, enjoying their successes, achieving
the peace and happiness which the resentful are forever denied. The ruling
party will tirelessly search for the weeds of human industry, the first frail
tendrils of ownership, the timid attempts of people to grow together in their 'little
platoons'. It will never be certain that the emigres, Jews, bourgeoisie, kulaks
or whoever have been finally destroyed, and will be haunted by the sense that for
every one killed another comes to replace him. The order of resentment will be
forced to confiscate not only the free economy but also the clubs, societies,
schools and churches which have hitherto been the natural instruments of social
reproduction. In short, resentment, once in power, will move of its own accord
towards the totalitarian state.
In many ways this is what we are seeing in the "hate the rich" approach of the current cycle.
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