Masses will not sacrifice for leaders who offer no concrete return

Evidence

In real life, one cannot ask for enthusiasm, spirit of sacrifice, etc. without giving anything in return, even from the subjects of one’s own country; all the less can one ask these things of citizens from outside that country, on the basis of a generic and abstract programme and a blind faith in a far-distant government. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 501

Categorization

• XREF: This anticipates Gramsci’s later theorization of hegemony — that consent must be won with material concessions, not merely demanded. Fits the reader’s scaffolding toolkit alongside that concept.