The Revolt of the Masses

"The Revolt of the Masses" – a socio-philosophical treatise by Ortega y Gasset, a book that brought him worldwide fame. In it, he first articulated the main principles of the so-called mass society in Western philosophy, where each individual is a statistician, preferring to "go with the flow" and bearing no responsibility for anything. According to the author, 20th century Western society is divided not into classes or social groups, but into certain types of people – representatives of the aristocracy and the "masses," who are gradually seizing power. This phenomenon – the seizure of power by the masses – Ortega y Gasset calls the "revolt of the masses"