Are you a commissar or a yogi? Find out.

How to account for the baffling diversity in human mindsets? Think of it as a spectrum, Arthur Koestler suggests in his essay The Yogi and The Commissar. The commissar acts, the yogi reflects. Read more about these two drastically different approaches to life.

Within vs without. The commissar wants to change the world outside, the yogi wants to transform the world inside. The commissar sees the tangible world of goods, scarcity, and suffering. The yogi sees the intangible world of ethics, dreams, and spirits.

Means vs ends. The commissar is comfortable using ignoble means - “violence, ruse, treachery and poison” - to achieve his noble ends. The yogi argues the opposite: the end is never known, and hence “means alone count.”

Logic vs the unconscious. The commissar is a materialist, and considers the universe a “very large clockwork” knowable through logic. The yogi is an artist, and considers the universe’s core nature to be a mystery knowable through unconscious visions.

The commissar addresses person-society relations while the yogi looks at person-universe relations. Even their temporary accommodation involves uneasy compromise, and never a full synthesis.

Never go full commissar. Logic can lead to dark places. Consider this train of argument: A nation has a right to self defense - but the best defense is attack.” Also, an “increase of ruthlessness shortens the struggle.” Through coherent logic one has reached the doors of a war.

Never go full yogi. Putting principle above all can also lead to dark places. Against a remorseless tyrant, the principle of non-violence just translates to “passive submission to bayoneting and raping.” 

History as a pendulum. The world swings back and forth from the commissar to the yogi. In the 19th century, materialism, logic, and other commissar values were ascendant. In the 20th century, mass psychosis, the unconscious, and the yogi phase made a comeback.

In the 19th century, physics saw the world as coherent and knowable. In the 20th century, quantum theory came in, “unmeasurable factors” were found, and metaphysics returned. Hence the development of physics shows the tension & interaction between the commissar & the yogi.

Bottom line. Koestler thought in dualities, and unlike many in the 20th century he didn’t have a final solution in mind. Both the yogi and the commissar worldviews have their own powers and pitfalls, and striking a balance between the two is the only way forward.