The Mentality of the Crowd

[Scourge of God]

The same thing is happening in other orders, particularly in the intellectual. I may be mistaken, but the present-day writer, when he takes his pen in hand to treat a subject which he has studied deeply, has to bear in mind that the average reader, who has never concerned himself with this subject, if he reads at all does so with the view, not of learning something from the writer, but rather, of pronouncing judgment on him [the writer] when he is not in aggreement with the commonplaces that the said reader carries in his head. If the individuals who make up the mass believed themselves specially qualified, it would be a case merely of personal error, not a sociological subversion. The characteristic of the hour is that the commonplace mind, knowing itself to be commonplace, has the assurance to proclaim the rights of the commonplace and to impose them wherever it will. As they say in the United states, "to be different is to be indecent." The mass crushes beneath it anything that is different, everything that is excellent, individual, qualified and select. Anybody who is not like everybody, who does not think like everybody, runs the risk of being elminiated. And it is clear, of course, that this "everybody" is not "everybody." "Everybody" was normally the complex unity of the mass and the divergent, specialised minorities. Nowadays, "everybody" is the mass alone. Here we have the formidable fact of our times, described without any concealment of the brutality of its features.

--Jose Ortega y Gasset The Revolt of the Masses

 

[JoeVice]

"The mass crushes beneath it anything that is different, everything that is excellent, individual, qualified and select. Anybody who is not like everybody, who does not think like everybody, runs the risk of being elminiated"

among the somebodies suppressed are the depressed, the racial minorities, the homosexuals, and the closet homosexuals. the excellent, individual, qualified and select would not 'be' if it wasn't for the mass. the idiocy of the mass is no more than that of the minority who uses it as an excuse.

 

[Έρεβος]

among the somebodies suppressed are the depressed, the racial minorities, the homosexuals, and the closet homosexuals. the excellent, individual, qualified and select would not 'be' if it wasn't for the mass. the idiocy of the mass is no more than that of the minority who uses it as an excuse.

Umm, suppressed? I'm rather certain that such minorities are elevated by modern society. (Yet they still bitch.)

 

[JoeVice]

elevated, suppressed, distinguished...same idea.

 

[Έρεβος]

elevated, suppressed, distinguished...same idea.

What the hell? :Smug:

 

[JoeVice]

"The mass crushes beneath it anything that is different, everything that is excellent, individual, qualified and select. Anybody who is not like everybody, who does not think like everybody, runs the risk of being elminiated"

this statement is ironic, especially the "different vs. excellent, individual, qualified, and select" idea. then the guy throws "runs the risk of being eliminated". EVERYBODY runs the risk of being eliminated.

"if he reads at all does so with the view, not of learning something from the writer, but rather, of pronouncing judgment on him [the writer] when he is not in aggreement with the commonplaces that the said reader carries in his head."

ohhhh...poor writer, (*cough* fag, fat-ass, racial minority) he is being judged. he did some good though. the reader definetely learns. damn, its brutal.

 

[Imp!]

So the smart ones are repressed? Anyone ever thought that's the way it should be? Hehe, natures way of encouraging unity? I don't even think that's necessarily true, what of all the unorthodox types that have improved society, why have they been elevated? So who are the masses crushing these days?

 

[JoeVice]

"So who are the masses crushing these days?"

the weak get crushed, this includes the "intelligent ones" who bitch about it.

 

[Seditious]

--Jose Ortega y Gasset The Revolt of the Masses

I WTF'd at a couple of the replies in this thread, but that quote definitely fits my line of thinking lately, in the same vain as Nozick's tale of the slave (a summary of which I have on my media page http://media.putfile.com/Democracy-and-Slavery )

 

[Scourge of God]

"The mass crushes beneath it anything that is different, everything that is excellent, individual, qualified and select. Anybody who is not like everybody, who does not think like everybody, runs the risk of being elminiated"

this statement is ironic, especially the "different vs. excellent, individual, qualified, and select" idea. then the guy throws "runs the risk of being eliminated". EVERYBODY runs the risk of being eliminated.

"if he reads at all does so with the view, not of learning something from the writer, but rather, of pronouncing judgment on him [the writer] when he is not in aggreement with the commonplaces that the said reader carries in his head."

ohhhh...poor writer, (*cough* fag, fat-ass, racial minority) he is being judged. he did some good though. the reader definetely learns. damn, its brutal.

Is the whole concept of reading for context beyond you?

 

[JoeVice]

yes

well, actually, i've never heard of the concept.

 

[Scourge of God]

yes

well, actually, i've never heard of the concept.

Obviously...

 

[JoeVice]

thats why i responded so. give me a brief description of "reading for context."

 

[Scourge of God]

You see, intelligent people look at the context in which a particular statement is situated before evaluating it for meaning.

For instance, if the context of a paragraph about the impact of masscult thinking on intellectual life, intelligent people know without having to be told that references to divergence almost certainly refer to intellectual dissenters, not queers and coloreds.

 

[JoeVice]

You see, intelligent people look at the context in which a particular statement is situated before evaluating it for meaning.

For instance, if the context of a paragraph about the impact of masscult thinking on intellectual life, intelligent people know without having to be told that references to divergence almost certainly refer to intellectual dissenters, not queers and coloreds.

i understand that. the irony is that the mass crushes the intellectuals, the select, and the elite, much like the mass crushes the retards, the fags, the my pals, and the idiots. the writer seems to be bitching about it.

 

[Scourge of God]

The mass ELEVATES the queers and coloreds above their stations - they are held up as the very embodiment of the social recognition the crowd seeks.

 

[JoeVice]

different is elevated by being so. this is a matter of social recognition, which is in our nature to seek. the queers and coloreds identify stronger with their divergence than do those who aren't concerned.

what do you mean when you say "stations?"

 

[Scourge of God]

The queers and coloreds are elevated precisely because of their lack of real difference - their elevation is a sign of the crowd's victory over better men.

 

[JoeVice]

"their elevation is a sign of the crowd's victory over better men."

and how is that?

 

[Scourge of God]

"their elevation is a sign of the crowd's victory over better men."

and how is that?

The hallmark of traditionally organized societies is hierarchy - that is, that rights and duties are distributed according to social function and the value that the whole of society receives from the efforts of individuals. The better classes receive more, and, in turn, more is expected of them. Such societies typically (and rightly) discriminate against those who are outside the primary social order either by the incompatibility of their natures (aliens) or by their conscious choice to reject the behavioral norms of a functioning society (fags and criminals).

The elevation of coloreds and queers by modern society is emblematic of the rejection of hierarchy by the mass - they become a talisman, a holy symbol of the cherished 'equality' that lies at the heart of the whole stinking morass of the New World (dis)Order.