Passive revolutions can unfold molecularly beneath society’s surface

Evidence

Gramsci also uses the expression in two distinct ways: firstly, in something close to Cuoco’s original sense, as a revolution without mass participation (and due in large part to outside forces)—e.g. the Risorgimento; secondly, as a “molecular” social transformation which takes place as it were beneath the surface of society, in situations where the progressive class cannot advance openly—e.g. the progress of the bourgeoisie in Restoration France after 1815 (“revolution/restoration”: see p. 119), or the development of Christianity within the Roman Empire. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 379

Categorization

• DEFINE: The two distinct senses of ‘passive revolution’ — top-down without masses, and molecular transformation beneath the surface.
• XREF: The molecular/sub-surface transformation sense maps onto later Islamophobia readings about how racialized hierarchies entrench incrementally without overt political action.