“Revolt exists beyond use-value, and it is manifested beyond useful revolt. It expresses what is human but
not as a social value, more as the injured response. We may deduce that there is, amongst the production and exchange of commodities, a human real because of the unreconstructed register of pain that individuals pre- serve as the core of their existence. The essence of hu- man experience is the recording of anguish. Revolt is
the expression of response to negative experiences of the world. And identity is formulated from the record of past traumas—that is, the mingling of essence with historical conditions. For reasons of revolt’s perceptual/emotional character, it only very rarely coincides precisely with political formulations, which more often appropriate
it in the name of giving it a voice. Most Revolutionary Theory thus misrepresents discontent and grievance and attempts to contain it within an ideological framework... but with, at best, only temporary success—revolt also re- volts against revolution. Human essence overruns, and so thwarts, all understanding of it.”