Organised crowds have always played an important part in the life of peoples, but this part has never been of such moment as at present. The substitution of the unconscious action of crowds for the conscious activity of individuals is one of the principal characteristics of the present age.
Gustave Le Bon - The Crowd; study of the popular mind (1895)
Imagine a situation where communication has become so slick and easy that the individual becomes hopelessly subsumed into the communicating crowd and is that much less an individual. Thanks to mobile phones and social media we end up with The substitution of the unconscious action of crowds for the conscious activity of individuals.
So far the substitution isn’t going well.
2 comments:
They've even got into a bit of a rut with their direct action. Attacking paintings, gluing themselves to roads, climbing on gantries. I would have expected more creativity from our young radicals, but if they prevail it looks as if the future will be as dull as it will be impoverished.
Sam - yes, lack of creativity could turn out to be the main weakness of their performances. People who always bang on about the same thing become tedious and their obsessions become weird and uninteresting.
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