Revolution as adolescent fantasy

In fact, much of the revolutionary impetus resembles adolescent fantasy -- dreams of omnipotence that should have been outgrown and never were, leading to murderous consequences. Fourier's delusions at least seem to have been relatively harmless in themselves; he imagined that in the new world order, which he would help to bring about, the climate would become "universally mild, and the sea would turn into a sweet, potable liquid much like lemonade."

Charles Fourier wrote, "Ce fluide combine avec le sel, donnera de l'eau de mer le gout d'une sorte de
limonade que nous nommons *aigresel*." He also claimed that people would live, on average, to 144 years of age.(Théorie des quatre mouvements et des destinées générales). He also wrote, that people would grow a fifth member that they could use as a parachute ("un cinquième membre et qui pourra servir de parachute"), but that may have been a joke. But then there is a certain kind of person that loves to bullshit, and is happy to have people take their words at face value, but if people attack them, they say they were just joking.