Edgar J. Jung wrote in Die Herrschaft der Minderwertigen:
'A good part of activist youth embraced radicalism. Not because of its ideas or aims, which were mostly non-existent, but in protest against the inactivity and dullness of bourgeois politicians... One should realize that in Germany this is an expression of the characteristic feature of the twentieth century; the activist, prepared to play his part and make sacrifices, replacing the indifferent voter of feeble convictions who constitutes the last remnant of the formally democratic era. Activism versus quietism, liveliness versus dullness, is the battle cry of the new day, which is more stirred by feelings than governed by deliberations.'
With all its one-sidedness, this view certainly touches upon one of the basic motives for this generation's alienation from society. On the psychology of the Freikorps see incidentally Ernst von Salomon, Die Geächteten (Berlin, 1933).