EVOLUTION, REVOLUTION-MASS MOVEMENT   523
have at their command all the new devices of communication. Whether
a propagandist is as important a factor in social change as he presumes
himself to be is open to question; but in the mass propagandists do aid in
the diffusion of new, or revived, ideas and practices.
In the long run the survival of any innovation depends upon its func-
tional value within the social context. Unless it in some way and to
some degree corrects an existing disequilibrium, it will either fail to gain
a significant number of adherents to make it a norm, or else it will
eventually fall into disuse. The initial acceptance of an innovation, how-
ever, is almost wholly a matter of successful promotion. If an invention
or discovery happens to secure the support of an energetic and ingenious
promoter, it may be adopted for a while, however impractical it may
prove to be in the course of time. On the other hand, the most useful
innovation may easily go unrecognized if it does not happen to secure
such sponsoring.
It is in part because inventors and discoverers are skilled in invention
and discovery rather than in the manipulation of people that they so
seldom gain personal recognition. And it is mainly because personal
leadership is necessary for the adoption of new ideas, devices, or prac-
tices that promoters are often mistaken for inventors. Fulton, for example,
did not invent the steamboat, as he is generally supposed by Americans
to have done. He promoted it in America; he demonstrated the feasibility
of the device and propagandized, against great odds, on its behalf. When
the conditions of technology and trade made the steamboat commercially
feasible, his labors came to fruit. (The English assign the origin of the
steamboat to a different person, English, of course.) The men who
actually contributed most to its invention are unknown.
Charismatic Leadership.—The promoter of a social idea or practice
sometimes acquires a large and reverent following. The idea or practice
is very often some sort of Utopian plan which, falling upon fertile soil,
becomes the center of a mass or revolutionary movement. As the plan
gains adherents, it takes on mystic, religious significance; and the pro-
moter becomes something of a messiah. His followers come to believe
that he possesses specially conferred superhuman powers—charisms—and
that he and what he represents therefore supersede all established prece-
dents and practices. Such a leader becomes, in effect, a law unto himself.
Charismatic leaders are usually men of great and exceptional personal
attraction. Ordinarily they believe in themselves (they are not to be con-
fused with charlatans) and can inspire others with that belief. Freud,
father of the cult of psychoanalysis, Hitler, symbol of the German Nazi
movement, Lenin, promoter of the Russian Revolution, Joseph Smith,
high priest of Mormonism, and Sun Yat-sen, hero of the still-to-be-