Lumpen is a tool for translating revolutionary ideas into life

Despite the original meaning of this term, now the lumpen is not just a declassed element of society. This word is increasingly called the representatives of the criminal world, as well as just vagabonds and beggars. The lumpen layer played a decisive role in many revolutionary movements, since a person who does not have a past, no specific goals in life, or a state he cherishes, very easily yields to any agitation. Financially, a representative of this layer is also easy to get interested, although there are sometimes enough promises of a bright future.

Literally the term "lumpen" means rags, rags, which exactly characterizes the unpleasant and untidy image of a typical tramp. If we consider the modern world, then there is a place in it for this class. And it's not necessarily vagrants, begging in public places or living in train stations. A modern lumpen is a person who does not have a purpose in life, there is no dream (or she is deliberately incompatible).

For example, in many collectives there is such an employee (not important, man or woman) at the age of 25 years and up to 40-50. He usually lives with his parents (at least in the hostel). Every day he goes to work and performs the same functions. He does not care what he is wearing and shod, that he eats and drinks. And for sure he has a dream, which he thinks every evening, after returning from work. It can be a house in California, your own helicopter or even a flight to Mars. The essence of the dream is not at all important, the main thing is that he simply thinks about it, doing nothing for the embodiment.

And if a person appears who can convince such a lumpen that his dream is realizable and only need to join a particular movement (party, sect), then the dreamer will abandon everything (although there is really nothing to throw) and will run after the leader. Will distribute leaflets (with the same pedantry with which he went to work), run around at home, agitate or even kill, and almost for free - just in the fight for a dream.

This was used in due time by the Communists, involving all "humiliated and insulted" in their movement. It was the lumpen proletarian who in due time overthrew the current government, transferring power to the Bolsheviks in the hope that they would realize his dream. And even if this never happens, he will still believe, and when disappointed, he will continue to act by inertia, waiting for a new leader. So the lumpen is not always a tramp or ragamuffin. Outwardly, it can not differ much from the surrounding mass, since it is rather a way of life or a state of mind.

Among other things, Marx introduced one more concept: the lumpenization of society, implying an increase in the proportion of representatives of this class. It is easier to manage such a society, it is easier to suggest. Each revolutionary idea can be implemented only if there is a sufficient degree of lumpenization.

In Soviet times, this image became so densely integrated into everyday life, it became generally accepted and to some extent even exemplary, that now there are even separate trends in art reflecting Soviet images, where the lumpen is the main character of the stories. In particular, in this direction works artist Alexander Erashov, part of the work is done in the style of the so-called lumpen surrealism.