The Temptation to Change Society
Exasperation with the threefold frustration of action - the unpredictability of its outcome, the irreversibility of the process, and the anonymity of its authors - is almost as old as recorded history. It has always been a great temptation, for men of action no less than for men of thought, to find a substitute for action in the hope that the realm of human affairs may escape the haphazardness and moral irresponsibility inherent in a plurality of agents.
Hannah Arendt, in 'The Human Condition'