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Friday, 3 April 2015

An utterly unstable line of conduct



In the past, and in no very distant past, the action of governments and the influence of a few writers and a very small number of newspapers constituted the real reflectors of public opinion. To-day the writers have lost all influence, and the newspapers only reflect opinion. As for statesmen, far from directing opinion, their only endeavour is to follow it. They have a dread of opinion, which amounts at times to terror, and causes them to adopt an utterly unstable line of conduct.

Gustave Le Bon - The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (1895)

An utterly unstable line of conduct eh? That's encouraging isn't it?
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2 comments:

  1. Demetrius3 April 2015 at 11:52

    1966 The Kinks "Dedicated follower of fashion". Le Bon was ahead of his time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A K Haart3 April 2015 at 21:26

    Demetrius - he was, although I don't think these things have changed much really.

    ReplyDelete

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