I've read a lot of 19th century writers, and they're really critical of "the people", and even democracy.
I don't know if you find this in Anglo-Saxon authors.
But for example, Gustave Flaubert wrote
"Universal suffrage as it exists is stupider than divine right. You'll see some great ones if you let it live! The mass, the number, is always stupid. I don't have many convictions. But I have this one, strongly. But we must respect the mass, however inept it may be, because it contains the seeds of incalculable fecundity. Give them freedom, but not power. "
Gustave le Bon
"Crowds have never thirsted for truths. When confronted with evidence they don't like, they turn away, preferring to deify error, if error seduces them. Whoever knows how to delude them is easily their master; whoever tries to disillusion them is always their victim".
Gustave le Bon is absolutely correct. Yes, the majority of humans are immeasurably dumb, selfish, foolish, and incapable of making the best decisions for society, humanity, and even themselves...
Look at how many thousands of years humans spent attacking and ridiculing intelligent people. Would be inventors, scientists, and doctors were witches and blasphemers. All the way up until recently with glorifying beating up nerds and now dismissing all science in the name of conspiracies...
There's a reason why humans have IQ's on a bell curve instead of being mostly intelligent or evolving towards a uniformly intelligent species. They reject and attack those who become too intelligent. They respond to higher intelligence with acting threatened, insulted, personally attacked, and they push back hard. Humans CHOOSE to be unintelligent. Irrationally, humans don't want to improve.
That's why a lot of intelligent people either become chameleons and mask their intelligence or actively avoid associating with most people.
I would certainly want to improve, but also don't forget nature wants us to reproduce during our short fertile years (for the women)!
I think health, age, and also educational opportunities can be skewed or unfair and that could affect people's ability to become smarter.
Also, who ever heard of someone in their 20's as knowing the theory of relativity, the pythagorean theoreum, advance meta physics, time travel sequences, etc. You don't NEED to know all that to know how sex works! Lol. It wasn't necessary really, for the continuation of our species. All we needed to know was the "bare minimum/basic stuff" like how to survive and how to reproduce. 🙂 After that, it's "Extra".
It is why phrases like "beware the mob for they are fickle" exist. The average 'masses' are dumb as hell. They believe anything and everything and the more "buzzwordy" it is the easier they believe it. Look at the people on this site or any forum. They throw around stuff like 'racism' 'misogyny' 'sexism' 'patriarchy' etc without even having the brain cells to understand the words. Perfect example is feminists and others saying the United States is a patriarchy. America hasn't been a patriarchy for a very very long time which a simple Google search or dictionary look up of the word and its definition would reveal to anyone with even an average iq.
Mark my words some women maybe even men will read this and immediately get so offended that they will comment the silliest things proving my point and your point because as you said in your post "crowds have never thirsted for truths"
In addition several of those commenting will entire ignore the fact that I am not saying shitty people don't exist. I am stating too many people are using buzzwords without being intelligent enough to bother to learn the meaning of the words.
I think there is a very important distinction to be made between "stupid" and "ignorant".
I would absolutely agree that the masses/majority are ignorant, but I would argue that they are far from stupid. I agree with the second author you are quoting, as I believe there is a lot of evidence to support that statement.
Unfortunately, anyone intelligent or even close to intelligent (say above a 5 on a 0-10 scale) who is also ignorant, can seem quite stupid given that their intelligence is misdirected and applied to ignorant concepts which they believe in wholeheartedly. As le Bon is lamenting, these (intelligent yet) ignorant people fight quite vehemently to hold onto harmful illusions.
Yes, overwhelmingly yes. And unfortunately getting stupider all the time. The internet was suppose to bring all the worlds accumulated knowledge to the finger tips, of the masses, …. but oddly, it seems to have had the opposite effect.
All this information at people’s disposal, & somehow people just stick within their bubble, & appear to be lacking in general common knowledge.
Another current example are the MAGA-TARDS — when the entire world saw before their eyes, the despicable deeds & scandalous actions of Trump the first time round, & knowing ALL that we know now about him & his criminal cabinet & cronies, the thought that they think the country wants a second helping, or round two, of that imbecile is inexplicable! — How stupid can we be as a country?
God yes, absolutely stupid! Mindless cattle who will play "follow the leader" whenever some deranged demagogue comes along to promise them things he cannot possibly deliver and would have no intention of delivering even if he could. Critical thinking is suspended when large groups of people come together to "demonstrate" (i. e. trash the streets), and chant their moronic cliches for all to hear.
"What do we want? (Fill in the blank) When do we want it? NOW!" Ugh! That's one of the many reasons why I have never, and never will, take part in a demonstration. They're what I like to call NPC's, non-playable characters, because they're so utterly mindless and robotic. It's disturbing and scary.
And really, the debacle of the last 3 years taught us one thing, and that's that everybody is unforgivably stupid. Gullible, naive, lacking any critical faculties whatsoever. And you know what, it was the learned and the intelligent that were the worst. If anything the plebs were more critical of the horseshit of the 'pandemic'. What you needed most was the ability to 'see the woods from the trees'. And as we get swamped in every more analysis, intellectualisation, as we get stuck in our heads, we become incredibly arrogant and fall away from truth even more profoundly.
I wouldn't say stupid but I would say gullible and prone to mob mentality. Even those people who claim not to follow the herd always follow a different herd. It's probably worse now because people read less and get all their information from memes and TikTok.
That last quote goes too crazy TBH.. Lmao.. Damn it's so true.. The masses are not stupid.. Together people can accomplish incredible things, that one single person or even a group of the smartest people couldn't dream of.
The last quote hits hard, because that describes the masses almost to a T.. They are are emotional, and are driven by simple errors because they drive emotions rather than the logical part that involves critical thinking.. The masses are simply ignorant and choose to remain ignorant because it feels easier and better to do so.. Not that they're stupid..
Collective intelligence versus population size.What concerns me is that women and people with IQ showed a marked drop suppressing their intelligence out of fear, self imposing pressure to conform.
This is why leaders can be so dangerous and have a sacred duty to be of the highest integrity. This is why I'm disappointed in this country's direction these past few years. It's fine to recognize blue collars for their grit, but it's foolish to favor the less intelligent to lead masses.
America's greatest threat to it's downfall is America itself. Other nations have gained a few steps on is because our actions in recent years.
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Anonymous
(30-35)
+1 y
Yeah. Most people will say that it's true, and they'll be speaking mainly about people they disagree with politically, as if they're free-thinkers themselves, which they usually aren't.
It's also not so much about being dumb really. Midwits, who are slightly above average intelligence, are the most gullible of all people. The most easily brainwashed, even more easily than low IQ people.
They want to be viewed as highly intelligent and reasonable, so they adopt whatever views are considered to be reasonable by those they see as being intelligent - mostly other midwits. They're more socially aware than less intelligent people. Their intelligence also helps them to rationalise almost anything, but this is also how they can be fooled into believing in complete nonsense. They're intelligent enough to do that but not intelligent enough to break things down or think for themselves, they mostly just parrot each other.
I think it has to be acknowledge the people are stupid and easily seduced by bread and circuses.
I don't think it has been put with the same eloquence as the authors quoted but the same point is often made. I did like Flaubert's comparison of universal suffrage with the divine right of kings.
For myself I do think there is a great commonsense in the people. They do get it wrong (in my view) but they will and do correct. I trust in the commonsense.
I wouldn't say any group of people are stupid. Some are naïve, some are ignorant, and some just don't understand the subtleties of life. Put them all together and you have a populace that can be manipulated... by the right people. It's happened many times in history.
To quote Min In Black: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." People do things in groups they'd never do alone. Too many people want to go along and not cause waves and get caught up in stupid movements.
That's eerily accurate. I always post THIS video whenever someone brings up this topic. This guy is spot on, and the fact that Obama had two terms and Joe Biden is our current president, proves this statement beyond a reasonable doubt
There's a theory that anytime ancient civilizations that were thriving, fell apart it's because stupid people produced more offspring than the smart people. They were overun and society collapsed.
I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and say "nieve"! Lol. A good example would be of this the 2020 Presidential election and the whole COVID-19 pandemic! If people still don't see through the propaganda and rhetoric by now, it's safe to say the following things: They are nieve but I think we are passed that, they simply don't care which isn't good either but doesn't make them stupid, or they are just stupid! I'll let all of you decide!😁
Groupthink tends to the dumbest level - think "Emperor's New Clothes" level idiocracy - and the bigger the group, the harder to get someone to break the unanimity. It's more peer pressure than stupidity.
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Anonymous
(18-24)
+1 y
Most of the people voting are people who are easily duped. They don't study, or prepare, or make themselves informed on any issue except what they're told to by the news and Hollywood celebrities, who know even less.
Generally yes. But they do have to work for a living, unlike intellectuals. They don't have the time to dick around in front a screen or a typewriter conjuring up useless abstract musings for 16 hours a day.
Talking to someone with a 100 IQ makes my brain cramp. I worked with a guy that tested 101. Made it a point to work that into conversation frequently because "100 is average, and I'm 1% above it." I tried to explain that... once... then went back to day drinking.
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