Karl Marx defined revolution as a return to the “original” egalitarian social organization of hunter-gatherers. I have argued that different subsistence economies have left their evolutionary mark on human personality so that nowadays we have got mostly “farmer” types, followed by “pastoralist” and “hunter-gatherer” types.
We, therefore, live in a predominantly materialistic farmer world. However, due to repeated hunter-gatherer rebellions, we also have predominantly idealistic hunter-gatherer values when it comes to social organization: egalitarian, democratic, tolerance of diversity. The Enlightenment and the French Revolution were hunter-gatherer movements. Liberté, égalité, fraternité were not only brought about by the French revolution but have been hunter-gatherer values for millennia before the advent of farming.
Therefore it seems likely that Marx himself was a hunter-gatherer type (intuitive, or N in Myers-Briggs). Indeed he is usually typed INTJ and it can be expected that other communists are also N types. It seems they are so without exception: Lenin, Pol Pot (INTJ), Stalin (ENTJ), Mao, Castro, Che (all ENFP), Engels (INTP). Many of these people turned from well-intentioned leaders to evil dictators, though. How come? It is impossible to turn a mixed society of farmer, herder and hunter-gatherer personalities into a communist utopia. Even if society consisted only of hunter-gatherer types, such organisation would not possible on a large scale. The communist leaders knew this intuitively and that is why they became paranoid and started to see enemies everywhere.
Even before the French and communist revolutions, there were hunter-gatherer revolutions. Many of them religious and fighting the inequalities that arose due to agriculture: Jesus (INFJ), Muhammad (INTJ), Buddha (INTP) and later religious rebels when religions became too “farmerized”, like Martin Luther (INTJ) and Jan Hus (INTP).
Going back to the times of early farming you find hunter-gatherer personalities fighting for a more equal society. Hammurabi (INTJ) and his famous Codex come to mind.
The 20th century saw civil rights hunter-gatherer figures like Martin Luther King (ENFJ), Malcolm X (ENTJ) and Gandhi (ENFJ), as well as protagonists for feminism (hunter-gatherer egalitarianism also includes women), like Simone de Beauvoir (INFJ).
The 21th-century hunter-gatherer movements have mostly been about tolerance towards diversity (Obama, ENTP has been a champion) and the discussion about universal basic income. The list of advocates for basic income features some really big name hunter-gatherer personalities: Elon Musk (INTJ), Mark Zuckerberg (INTJ) and many other Silicon Valley tech billionaires.
What about the common folk? The era of hippie, punk and metal rebellions seemed to have passed in popular culture. The protests have become much quieter now, but they are still there and manifest themselves in phenomena like Greta Thunberg (INTJ), the green movement, hipsters and purple and green-dyed hair.
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