Book: 20200509 to 20200619, "The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind" by Gustave Le Bon

20200509 - Introduction: The Era of the Crowds

What's the difference between "the crowd" and "the public"? Two reasons I believe.
1. The crowd is not allowed to share and to discuss information with each other. In another word, there is no Freedom of Expression.
2. The crowd doesn't get primary education. They cannot think independently.

The crowd is dangerous.

Book I: The Mind of Crowds

20200510 - Chapter I: General Characteristics of Crowds—Psychological Law of Their Mental Unity

Now I understand why this book is not popular in western countries. It's "politically incorrect".

It believes that when people gather together, sometimes they do strange things. Sometimes very brave, sometimes very stupid. In general, their IQ may be much lower than the average IQ of them.

Based on "Thinking, fast and slow", they are obviously occupied by "fast thinking". They act by their instinct. It looks like they are hypnotized.

This reminds me of locust swarm. Isolated locust is normal insect. But when a lot of them come together, they are transformed into locust swarm with totally different character.

The same thing happened many times in history. "Red guard" in Cultural Revolution is a typical example. An army under excellent or incompetent general might also be turned into "crowd" quickly.

20200515 - Chapter II: The Sentiments and Morality of Crowds

Crowds always follow their instincts. They don't think or reason.

This reminds me a lot of stories. Herd of whales and goats commit suicide. Swamps of locusts act like monsters, destroy everything and in the end kill themselves.

One of the weird thing is "hallucination". Yeah, we really don't know much about our brain. It's much more complicated that I thought.

Is it possible for individual to keep independent status in a crowd? I guess Budda and Jesus can do it. They can stay in meditation status all the time.

20200530 - Chapter III: The Ideas, Reasoning Power, and Imagination of Crowds

The ideas of crowds are actually common imagination. There are not much logic in it.

Most of those common imagination takes long time (maybe hundreds of years) to form. Superstition, culture and religion are part of it.

Crowd cannot do complex reasoning. Their reasoning is mainly done through imagination.

So, the crowd cannot tell which incident is more important. COVID-19 pandemic shows exactly this characteristic. The crowd just cannot tell how serious the problem is, and then over reacted to it. Even epidemic experts also make this mistake.

20200601 - Chapter IV: A Religious Shape Assumed By All the Convictions of Crowds

It's similar to religion. We need simple picture to affect crowd.

Details are not allowed, as it makes communication hard. With the help of simple imagination, the crowd know what to do: smash the people who don't agree with this simple imagination.

But after setting up some religion/regime/organization, it needs "bible" to support the existence. Then it's back to "The Dictator's Handbook".

Simple imagination doesn't last for long time.

Blue pill, red pill. The crowd always choose blue pill.

Book II: The Opinions and Beliefs of Crowds

20200605 - Chapter I: Remote Factors of the Opinions and Beliefs of Crowds

Race. Traditions. Time. Political and social institutions. Institutions and education.

It seems nothing can change the crowd quickly or easily.

The bad thing is, we are not going to see drastic social improvement, but the society may still crash quickly. It's easy to crash, but it takes ages to improve.

The good thing is, for individual, it's not too hard to climb up in the society (theoretically). If someone pay the price, study hard and work hard, he can get rich and happy easily.

Be aware of modern rules, that doesn't mean that people can think through and follow modern rules.

It's shocking to know that education impacts the society so little. Then how to explain the miracles happened at Korea, Taiwan and China in the past 70 years? The people in these countries had been trained to obey instructions, is this the major cause?

20200607 - Chapter II: The Immediate Factors of the Opinions of Crowds

Images, words, and formulae. Illusions. Experience. Reason.

Same word may have different meaning in different time period, and it may even have different meaning in the same period of time to different people. This is inevitable.

Whoever can supply illusion can be the master of crowds, and whoever try to destroy illusion could be the victim.

The only way to destroy illusion of crowds is through large scale experience, for long time (could be 20+ years).

Reasoning is useless. Crowds are too stupid to do slow thinking. They can only use their fast thinking (instinct response) to handle the words. This means, they are conquered by sentiments.

People are united by sentiments instead of reasoning, and conflicts are also more likely caused by sentiments. Reasoning is simply too complicated for normal people to understand.

20200610 - Chapter III: The Leaders of Crowds and Their Means of Persuasion

Crowds always need leader. There are two types of leader.

One can supply the sentiments the crowd need, but is mainly chosen by luck. I believe Jinpin Xi a typical example of this type.

Another one get the leader position by persistence. They give "experience" to the crowd through ages of hard work. Elon Musk is a typical example of this type.

Intelligence still decides the final direction. But it's done indirectly, and takes long time(could be more than 50 years). This is why Elon Musk is so important: he accelerated the whole procedure, which may save the planet by preventing drastic global warming.

There are two types of prestige, both go with the leader. One is with the "job title", the other one is with the person himself/herself. Democracy countries believe the prestige should mainly be with "job title", and the person can gain his/her prestige during the tenure. If the prestige is associated with the person, then it's also associated with the success of his/her work. That could be dangerous: the prestige could be ruined in one night.

20200612 - Chapter IV: Limitations of the Variability of the Beliefs and Opinions of Crowds

Fixed beliefs. The changeable opinions of crowds.

To see through illusion (to leave from the crowd), we just need to ask questions. It's unbelievable simple, but not as easy as it looks like. In most cases, we may not even allow ourselves to ask ourselves questions, as some questions seem evil or ridiculous.

With the help of internet, most people prefer to read short words. They don't want to spend hours/minutes trying to understand something complex. That's why "Black lives matter" movement gets so popular. Most of the people are affected by their sentiments (fast thinking). They are losing the capability of slow thinking.

To individuals, it's sad. To society, it's dangerous. Most of people cannot think independently, and were turned into "crowd".

However, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Whoever can do "slow thinking" will get higher chance to lead a team to win in competition.

Crowds are getting more and more power, thanks for the high efficient communication system(internet and smartphone). However, this also means they are easier to get affected. One thing for sure, anyone who want to control the crowds need to be prepared to by discarded by the crowds. Unless use violence to control(brainwash) them.

Maybe, we need more leaders like Elon Musk, who exert positive effects to the crowds to push civilization go ahead.

Book III: The Classification and Description of the Different Kinds of Crowds

20200613 - Chapter I: The Classification of Crowds

There are many different types of crowd. For example, street crowds, juries, parliamentary assemblies, political sects, religious sects, the military caste, the priestly caste, the working caste, the middle classes, the peasant classes, etc.

So, the crowd actually means "collective".

Why the IQ of crowd is so low? Because no one needs to take responsibility.

Why "responsibility" is so important?

For most of people, when they are doing web surfing, they are in "anonymous" status. That means, they don't need to take responsibility for whatever they say or do online. That creates crazy "crowds".

From this point of view, we need "identity" for each online user. Many people don't like that idea, but why? If it's all right to give an individual person identity in reality, why we should not do the same thing online?

Government is evil. Or, is it? Is it more evil that crowd?

20200615 - Chapter II: Crowds Termed Criminal Crowds

The chapter use "September Massacres"(1792, France) as an example.

1,200 prisoners were killed hastily, for imagined potential threat to the state.

It's not chaos. The crowd followed some rules/suggestions killing only the prisoners in some scopes, and everyone believed that they were patriots. It's not just caused by lacking of responsibility, but also because each one in the crowd support each other, which make each of them believe they were doing justice.

It seems this caused by ignorance, at root level. Simple causality is just an illusion, and the reality is complicated.

20200616 - Chapter III: Criminal Juries

The Juries system is designed so well.

Yes, the IQ of the crowd is normal, but the crowd is not easily controlled by anyone, which means, it's more reliable than any other one.

And, because Jury is constituted with people, it's a strong remedy of cold blood law.

20200617 - Chapter IV: Electoral Crowds

To social problems, everyone is equally ignorant. So, democracy is the best institution although it has a lot of critical drawbacks. And, no one can bribe/control everyone in a democratic country.

This is why we should not adopt centralism.

I believe, that the best way to improve democracy, is to train everyone to think independently. Or else, the crowds is quite easy to get affected by some people in power, such as electoral committee.

To win voting, the candidate needs wealth, prestige, skill and luck.

20200619 - Chapter V: Parliamentary Assemblies

What we can see are all illusion. This means, we care much more about illusion than real world. This is why kids love computer game so much, and why old man like young ladies, and why girls fall in love with "bad" man.

To be a good leader, the leader needs to give the crowd "illusion", and not the real benefit.

These illusion can bring in miracles, or disasters.

Parliament is a terrible crowd, which has all drawbacks of other crowd. The good thing is, no one can control it. So, people don't need to worry about dictatorship. That's a critical advantage, which make democracy the best institution in the world (so far).

Civilization is based on common imagination. When the common imagination collapse, the civilization also collapse. Why the common imagination would collapse? Because it's "imagination", not real. So, at some point, more and more people would realize the imagination is not real. That's the time that common imagination lose its magic, and then the civilization starts to collapse.

Then, new "common imagination" would form again, and the new civilization would start to emerge.

20200623 - Summary

The crowds only do "fast thinking". They react by instinct, instead of independent thinking.

Lucky there are books. The book like "The Guns of August" reminds us the importance of slow thinking.

That's how we can avoid the shortcomings of the crowds. If enough people pick up books.

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https://www.yidianzixun.com/article/0NQQBVSY

《乌合之众》50句精华

1、人一到群体中，智商就严重降低，为了获得认同，个体愿意抛弃是非，用智商去换取那份让人备感安全的归属感。

2、我们始终有一种错觉，以为我们的感情源自于我们自己的内心。

3、群体只会干两种事——锦上添花或落井下石。

4、个人一旦成为群体的一员，他所作所为就不会再承担责任，这时每个人都会暴露出自己不受到的约束的一面。群体追求和相信的从来不是什么真相和理性，而是盲从、残忍、偏执和狂热，只知道简单而极端的感情。

5、我们以为自己是理性的，我们以为自己的一举一动都是有其道理的。但事实上，我们的绝大多数日常行为，都是一些我们自己根本无法了解的隐蔽动机的结果。

6、所谓的信仰，它能让一个人变得完全受自己的梦想奴役。

7、在与理性永恒的冲突中，感情从未失过手。

8、有时不真实的东西比真实的东西包含更多的真理。

9、群众没有真正渴求过真理，面对那些不合口味的证据，他们会充耳不闻…凡是能向他们提供幻觉的，都可以很容易地成为他们的主人；凡是让他们幻灭的，都会成为他们的牺牲品。

10、数量，即是正义。

11、掌握了影响群众想象力的艺术，也就掌握了统治他们的艺术。

12、没有传统，就没有文明；没有对传统的缓慢淘汰，就没有进步。

13、孤立的个人很清楚，在孤身一人时，他不能焚烧宫殿或洗劫商店，即使受到这样做的诱惑，他也很容易抵制这种诱惑。但是在成为群体的一员时，他就会意识到人数赋予他的力量，这足以让他生出杀人劫掠的念头，并且会立刻屈从于这种诱惑。出乎预料的障碍会被狂暴地摧毁。人类的机体的确能够产生大量狂热的激情，因此可以说，愿望受阻的群体所形成的正常状态，也就是这种激愤状态

14、能够感觉到的现象可以比作波浪，是海洋深处我们一无所知的那些乱象在洋面上的表象。

15、昨天受群众拥戴的英雄一旦失败，今天就会受到侮辱。当然名望越高，反应就会越强烈。在这种情况下，群众就会把末路英雄视为自己的同类，为自己曾向一个已不复存在的权威低头哈腰而进行报复。

16、群体在智力上总是低于孤立的个人，但是从感情及其激发的行动这个角度看，群体可以比个人表现得更好或更差，这全看环境如何。一切取决于群体所接受的暗示具有什么性质。

17、群体因为夸大自己的感情，因此它只会被极端感情所打动。希望感动群体的演说家，必须出言不逊，信誓旦旦。夸大其辞、言之凿凿、不断重复、绝对不以说理的方式证明任何事情——这些都是公众集会上的演说家惯用的论说技巧。

18、令人难忘的历史事件，只是人类思想无形的变化造成的有形的后果而已。

19、孤立的个体具有控制自身反应行为的能力，而群体则不具备。

20、专横和偏执是一切类型的群体的共性。

21、影响民众想象力的，并不是事实本身，而是它们发生和引起注意的方式。

22、群体总是对强权俯首帖耳，却很少为仁慈善行感动！在他们看来，仁慈善良只不过是软弱可欺的代名词。

23、大众没有辨别能力，因而无法判断事情的真伪，许多经不起推敲的观点，都能轻而易举的得到普遍赞同!

24、群体盲从意识会淹没个体的理性，个体一旦将自己归入该群体，其原本独立的理性就会被群体的无知疯狂所淹没。

25、从长远看，不断重复的说法会进入我们无意识的自我的深层区域，而我们的行为动机正是在这里形成的。到了一定的时候，我们会忘记谁是那个不断被重复的主张的作者，我们最终会对它深信不移。

26、群体中的个人是沙中之沙，风可以随意搅动他们。

27、群体表现出来的感情不管是好是坏，其突出的特点就是极为简单而夸张。

28、但凡能够成就大业的领袖人物，他重要的品质不是博学多识，而是必须具备强大而持久的意志力，这是一种极为罕见，极为强大的品质，它足以征服一切。

29、结群后，由于人多势众，个人会产生一种幻觉，感到自己力大无穷，不可战胜，好像没有什么事情是办不到的。

30、当一个人融入社会之中时，他便失去了自我。

31、在迫不得已的情况下，我们也许还是会愿意接受传统教育当中所有的弊端，因为尽管它只会培养一些被社会所抛弃的人、心怀不满的人，但起码，对冗繁知识的肤浅掌握，对成堆教科书的完美背诵，或许可以提高智力水平。但事实上它真的能提高智力吗？不可能！在生活中，判断力、经验、进取心和个性，这些才是取得成功的条件，这些都不是书本所能够给予的。书本是可供查询的有用字典，但倘若把这些冗长的词条都装在脑子里，那可是一点用都没有。

32、文明赖以形成的道德力量失去效力时，它的最终瓦解总是由无意识且野蛮的群体来完成的。

33、一切政治、神学或社会信条，要想在群众中扎根，都必须采取宗教的形式——能够把危险的讨论排除在外的形式。

34、群体精神最需要的不是自由而是服从。他们如此甘愿听从别人的意志，以至于只要有人自称是它们的主人，他们就会本能地听命于他。

35、尽管在那一天的那两个小时里他们做到了或者几乎做到了，到一个月以后他们却不再具备这种能力。他们无法再次通过考试。他们脑中不断丢失大量过于沉重的知识，而且没有新的知识来填充。他们的思想活力开始衰退，促进成长的才能渐渐干涸，这时一个得到充分发展的人诞生了，但此时的他早已疲惫不堪。结婚过上安定的生活，陷入某种循环，并永无止境地重复下去；他将自己封闭在狭隘的工作中，尽职尽责，仅此而已。他们最终变为了平庸之辈。

36、个人一旦融入群体，他的个性便会被湮没，群体的思想便会占据绝对的统治地位，而与此同时，群体的行为也会表现出排斥异议，极端化、情绪化及低智商化等特点。进而对社会产生破坏性的影响。

37、群体的叠加只是愚蠢的叠加，而真正的智慧被愚蠢的洪流淹没。

38、人们经常说起那家大众剧院，它只演令人压抑的戏剧，散场后，必须保护扮演叛徒的演员，免得他遭到观众的暴打。他所犯的罪行，当然是想象出来的，引起了群众的巨大愤怒。我觉得这是群体精神状态最显著的表现之一，这清楚地说明，要给他们什么暗示是一件多么容易的事情。对他们来说，假与真几乎同样奏效。他们明显地表现出真假不分的倾向。

39、群体也许永远是无意识的，但这种无意识本身，可能就是它力量强大的秘密之一。在自然界，绝对服从本能的生物，其行为会复杂得让我们不敢相信。理智是人类新近才有的东西，太不完美了，不能向我们揭示无意识的规律，更不能替代它。在我们的行为举止中，无意识部分占的比重很大，理智所占的比例却很小。无意识现在仍作为未知的力量在起作用。

40、到了一定的时候我们不会记得那个不断被重复的主张的人是谁，我们最终会对它深信不疑，广告能有令人吃惊的威力，这就是原因。

41、名望的产生与若干因素有关，而成功永远是其中最重要的一个。

42、在决定人们历史地位上起着更大作用的，不是他们的“真实”面目，而是后人对他们的认识和感受。

43、群体会让每个人在其中的错误缩小，同时让每个人的恶意被无限放大.

44、束缚个人行为的责任感一消失，人便会随心所欲，肆意妄为。

45、群体的无意识行为取代了个体有意识的行为，这是现时代最显著的特征之一。

46、偶像崇拜的五大标识：

第一，偶像总是凌驾于信徒，处于高高在上的地位，这一点有着决定性的作用。

第二，信徒总是盲目服从偶像的命令。

第三，信徒没有能力，也不愿意对偶像规定的信条进行讨论。

第四，信徒有着狂热的愿望，希望把偶像的信条广加传播。

第五，信徒倾向于把不接受他们的任何人视为仇敌。

当群体符合第一条，其形式就等同于宗教，而这种情感就变成了宗教信仰。

对群体来说，也许最不合理的才是最合理的选择

47、群众日益被大众文化所湮没，这种文化把平庸低俗当作最有价值的东西。

48、所以不要轻易地成为集体的一份子，这样很容易被别有用心的人利用，即使你以为自己只不过是随声附和了一下而已，实际上你已经成了帮凶。

49、群体的夸张倾向只作用于感情，对智力不起任何作用。

50、群体不善推理，却又急于行动。