Knapp stated that while Lessing expose self @-@ styled insurrectionists as " spoiled and immature products of the middle class " , she also deride their ineptness at affecting any meaningful change . Lessing is critical of the state which " feed the very hand that terrorize it " , yet she also condemn those institutions that exploit the working class and ignore the homeless . Knapp remark that Lessing do not resolve these ambiguities , but instead highlight the failings of the state and those seeking to overthrow it . Scanlan compared Lessing 's comrades to Richard E. Rubenstein 's terrorists in his book Alchemists of Revolution : Terrorism in the Modern World . Rubenstein wrote that when " ambitious idealists " have no " creative ruling class to follow or a rebellious lower class to lead [ they ] have often taken upon themselves the burden of representative action " , which he said " is a formula for disaster " .