THE IMMEDIATE FACTORS OF THE OPINIONS OF CROWDS1.IMAGES, WORDS AND FORMULAE.The magical power of words and formulae--The power of words bound up with the images they evoke, and independent of their real sense--These images vary from age to age, and from race to race--The wear and tear of words--Examples of the considerable variations of sense of much-used words--The political utility of baptizing old things with new names when the words by which they were designated produced an unfavourable impression on the masses-- variations of the sense of words in consequence of race differences--The different meanings of the word "democracy" in Europe and America.
2.ILLUSIONS.Their importance--They are to be found at the root of all civilisations--The social necessity of illusions--Crowds always prefer them to truths.3.
EXPERIENCE.Experience alone can fix in the mind of crowds truths become necessary and destroy illusions grown dangerous--Experience is only effective on the condition that it be frequently repeated--The cost of the experiences requisite to persuade crowds.4.REASON.The nullity of its influence on crowds--Crowds only to be influenced by their unconscious sentiments-- The role of logic in history--The secret causes of improbable events.
We have just investigated the remote and preparatory factors which give the mind of crowds a special receptivity, and make possible therein the growth of certain sentiments and certain ideas.It now remains for us to study the factors capable of acting in a direct manner.We shall see in a forthcoming chapter how these factors should be put in force in order that they may produce their full effect.
In the first part of this work we studied the sentiments, ideas, and methods of reasoning of collective bodies, and from the knowledge thus acquired it would evidently be possible to deduce in a general way the means of making an impression on their mind.
We already know what strikes the imagination of crowds, and are acquainted with the power and contagiousness of suggestions, of those especially that are presented under the form of images.
However, as suggestions may proceed from very different sources, the factors capable of acting on the minds of crowds may differ considerably.It is necessary, then, to study them separately.
This is not a useless study.Crowds are somewhat like the sphinx of ancient fable: it is necessary to arrive at a solution of the problems offered by their psychology or to resign ourselves to being devoured by them.
1.IMAGES, WORDS, AND FORMULAS
When studying the imagination of crowds we saw that it is particularly open to the impressions produced by images.These images do not always lie ready to hand, but it is possible to evoke them by the judicious employment of words and formulas.
Handled with art, they possess in sober truth the mysterious power formerly attributed to them by the adepts of magic.They cause the birth in the minds of crowds of the most formidable tempests, which in turn they are capable of stilling.A pyramid far loftier than that of old Cheops could be raised merely with the bones of men who have been victims of the power of words and formulas.
The power of words is bound up with the images they evoke, and is quite independent of their real significance.Words whose sense is the most ill-defined are sometimes those that possess the most influence.Such, for example, are the terms democracy, socialism, equality, liberty, &c., whose meaning is so vague that bulky volumes do not suffice to precisely fix it.Yet it is certain that a truly magical power is attached to those short syllables, as if they contained the solution of all problems.
They synthesise the most diverse unconscious aspirations and the hope of their realisation.
Reason and arguments are incapable of combatting certain words and formulas.They are uttered with solemnity in the presence of crowds, and as soon as they have been pronounced an expression of respect is visible on every countenance, and all heads are bowed.
By many they are considered as natural forces, as supernatural powers.They evoke grandiose and vague images in men's minds, but this very vagueness that wraps them in obscurity augments their mysterious power.They are the mysterious divinities hidden behind the tabernacle, which the devout only approach in fear and trembling.
The images evoked by words being independent of their sense, they vary from age to age and from people to people, the formulas remaining identical.Certain transitory images are attached to certain words: the word is merely as it were the button of an electric bell that calls them up.
All words and all formulas do not possess the power of evoking images, while there are some which have once had this power, but lose it in the course of use, and cease to waken any response in the mind.They then become vain sounds, whose principal utility is to relieve the person who employs them of the obligation of thinking.Armed with a small stock of formulas and commonplaces learnt while we are young, we possess all that is needed to traverse life without the tiring necessity of having to reflect on anything whatever.