“Assembled in a crowd, people lose their powers of reasoning and their capacity for moral choice. Their suggestibility is increased to the point where they cease to have any judgement or will of their own. They become very excitable, they lose all sense of individual or collective responsibility, they are subject to sudden accesses of rage, enthusiasm and panic. In a word, man in a crowd behaves as though he had swallowed a large dose of what I have called “herd-poisoning.”
Reading is a private, not a collective activity. The writer speaks only to individuals, sitting by themselves in a state of normal sobriety. The orator speaks to masses of individuals, already well primed with herd poison. They are at his mercy and, if he knows his business, he can do what he likes with them.”
Aldous Huxley
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” Charles McKay.
Adolf Hitler was a masterful orator, ‘he knew his business’ as Huxley would have said. The effect he had on his audience was referred to as the ‘Hitler Heat’.
Orwell and Huxley looked into the future and did not blink. Each day of PC, BLM, feminism, climate science, homophobia, Islamophobia, etc.etc., moves us closer to total group think and group hate!
I was so very reminded of this principle recently when I when went to an aromatherapy sales/home sales party for a friend and we were told to take a whiff of a lovely oil blend and close our eyes for 30 seconds of Bliss.* I couldn’t help but make the comparison with 1984 as I watched each woman in the room sniff, then close her eyes to feign a sense of happiness from the lovely aroma. At 200 dollars for a half ounce, a large dose of Rose Essential Oil distilled from the petals and buds of fragrant long-stem roses will make just about anything exude happy, but the blend isn’t what makes the woman close her eyes and seem peaceful. It is the suggestion that for 30 seconds, she may dispense with the worry of her day and simply be joyful.
I have come to realize that there are some very keen people among us who actually study the tendency of people in groups like my aromatherapy hen party to submit and follow the directions given by power of suggestion. I am not particularly keen, but have been known to use the same technique to change a course of action I didn’t like in such a way as to seem completely oblivious.
Who needs five minutes of hate when you can accomplish so much more with a couple minutes of bliss?
* The name of the blend is Joy and if that tells you what company, then you will know what I mean.
” … but the blend isn’t what makes the woman close her eyes and seem peaceful. It is the suggestion that for 30 seconds, she may dispense with the worry of her day and simply be joyful.” —– Maggie
That’s exactly how I feel when I fart under the sheets. Something I have been unable to convey to Ms Freud.
What you have conveyed to her is that you just shit the bed.