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Title: The Crowd by Gustave Le Bon ISBN: 0-486-41956-8 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 08 January, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: 9/11 and 'The Crowd'
Comment: I think the reviewer Derek Pillion summed up this book rather well. But I want to relate something that came into my mind after reading the following passage from chapter III:
"A hundred petty crimes or petty accidents will not strike the imagination of crowds in the least, whereas a single great crime or a single great accident will profoundly impress them, even though the results be infinitely less disastrous than those of the hundred small accidents put together.
The epidemic of influenza, which caused the death but a few years ago of five thousand persons in Paris alone, made very little impression on the popular imagination. The reason was that this veritable hecatomb was not embodied in any visible image, but was only learnt from statistical information furnished weekly.
An accident which should have caused the death of only five hundred instead of five thousand persons, but on the same day and in public, as the outcome of an accident appealing stronly to the eye, by the fall for instance of the Eiffel Tower [sic], would have produced, on the contrary, an immense impression on the imagination of the crowd.
... To know the art of impressing the imagination of crowds is to know at the same time the art of governing them."
What came into my mind after reading that passage? Airplanes and collapsing towers. This book is a must read for any thinking person.
Rating: 5
Summary: Everything else pales beside this nearly-forgotten classic.
Comment: As I write this, the President's people are using public opinion polls to find out whether it would better serve his political ends to confess or to continue his denials in the Lewsinky affair. Eerily, this and more was predicted and explained in detail in 1895 (!) by the author of The Crowd.
If you want to understand the political scene today--the decline of statesmanship, the rise of spin-meistership, the mindless polling, the pandering to the electorate, the throw-it-against-the-wall-and-see-if-it-sticks lowest common denominator pragmatisim of our political leaders--read this book!
Rating: 5
Summary: More insightful than Macchiavelli
Comment: This is a short book whose pages have a far greater impact than the title might suggest. As many reviewers have already noted, the book simply explains the mechanisms that guide the popualr imagination and outlines the simple principles that enable the few who grasp them to hold control over vast populations. What struck me particulalry was how the recipes for power suggested by Gustave Le Bon are reflected in contemporary neo-liberal economic and socio-cultural agendas. Those who are involved in developing education policies will find the book especially useful. Writing over a century ago,Le Bon criticized the liberal education system and advocated the more common sense practical type of learning that neo-liberal agendas have been pushing for since the late 70's. It also makes a strong case for the impact of simple messages over crowds. Common sense arguments, logic and thoughtful concerns, LE Bon argues, are lost on the masses. Indeed, it is widely believed that this was one of Benito Mussolini's favorite books. We are living ever more in an era of simplistic thinking. By reading this book you will understand how this has occurred and how demagogues rise to power. As with another reviewer, I also stay away from crowds. This book unraveled the unconscious instincts that always make me avoid crowds and anything that is too popular.
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Title: Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay ISBN: 051788433X Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 25 July, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Psychology of the Stock Market by G. C. Selden, James L. Fraser ISBN: 0870340166 Publisher: Fraser Publishing Co. Pub. Date: 01 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Art of Contrary Thinking by Humphrey B. Neill ISBN: 087004110X Publisher: Caxton Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Speculation As a Fine Art and Thoughts on Life by Dickson G. Watts ISBN: 0870340565 Publisher: Fraser Publishing Co. Pub. Date: September, 1997 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefèvre, Marketplace Books ISBN: 0471059706 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 11 May, 1994 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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