登陆注册
20005300000044

第44章

LIMITATIONS OF THE VARIABILITY OF THE BELIEFS AND OPINIONS OF CROWDS1.FIXED BELIEFS.The invariability of certain general beliefs--They shape the course of a civilisation--The difficulty of uprooting them--In what respect intolerance is a virtue in a people--The philosophic absurdity of a belief cannot interfere with its spreading.2.THE CHANGEABLE OPINIONS OF CROWDS.

The extreme mobility of opinions which do not arise from general beliefs--Apparent variations of ideas and beliefs in less than a century--The real limits of these variations--The matters effected by the variation--The disappearance at present in progress of general beliefs, and the extreme diffusion of the newspaper press, have for result that opinions are nowadays more and more changeable--Why the opinions of crowds tend on the majority of subjects towards indifference--Governments now powerless to direct opinion as they formerly did--Opinions prevented to-day from being tyrannical on account of their exceeding divergency.

1.FIXED BELIEFS

A close parallel exists between the anatomical and psychological characteristics of living beings.In these anatomical characteristics certain invariable, or slightly variable, elements are met with, to change which the lapse is necessary of geological ages.Side by side with these fixed, indestructible features are to be found others extremely changeable, which the art of the breeder or horticulturist may easily modify, and at times to such an extent as to conceal the fundamental characteristics from an observer at all inattentive.

The same phenomenon is observed in the case of moral characteristics.Alongside the unalterable psychological elements of a race, mobile and changeable elements are to be encountered.For this reason, in studying the beliefs and opinions of a people, the presence is always detected of a fixed groundwork on which are engrafted opinions as changing as the surface sand on a rock.

The opinions and beliefs of crowds may be divided, then, into two very distinct classes.On the one hand we have great permanent beliefs, which endure for several centuries, and on which an entire civilisation may rest.Such, for instance, in the past were feudalism, Christianity, and Protestantism; and such, in our own time, are the nationalist principle and contemporary democratic and social ideas.In the second place, there are the transitory, changing opinions, the outcome, as a rule, of general conceptions, of which every age sees the birth and disappearance;examples in point are the theories which mould literature and the arts--those, for instance, which produced romanticism, naturalism, mysticism, &c.Opinions of this order are as superficial, as a rule, as fashion, and as changeable.They may be compared to the ripples which ceaselessly arise and vanish on the surface of a deep lake.

The great generalised beliefs are very restricted in number.

Their rise and fall form the culminating points of the history of every historic race.They constitute the real framework of civilisation.

It is easy to imbue the mind of crowds with a passing opinion, but very difficult to implant therein a lasting belief.However, a belief of this latter description once established, it is equally difficult to uproot it.It is usually only to be changed at the cost of violent revolutions.Even revolutions can only avail when the belief has almost entirely lost its sway over men's minds.In that case revolutions serve to finally sweep away what had already been almost cast aside, though the force of habit prevented its complete abandonment.The beginning of a revolution is in reality the end of a belief.

The precise moment at which a great belief is doomed is easily recognisable; it is the moment when its value begins to be called in question.Every general belief being little else than a fiction, it can only survive on the condition that it be not subjected to examination.

But even when a belief is severely shaken, the institutions to which it has given rise retain their strength and disappear but slowly.Finally, when the belief has completely lost its force, all that rested upon it is soon involved in ruin.As yet a nation has never been able to change its beliefs without being condemned at the same time to transform all the elements of its civilisation.The nation continues this process of transformation until it has alighted on and accepted a new general belief: until this juncture it is perforce in a state of anarchy.General beliefs are the indispensable pillars of civilisations; they determine the trend of ideas.They alone are capable of inspiring faith and creating a sense of duty.

Nations have always been conscious of the utility of acquiring general beliefs, and have instinctively understood that their disappearance would be the signal for their own decline.In the case of the Romans, the fanatical cult of Rome was the belief that made them masters of the world, and when the belief had died out Rome was doomed to die.As for the barbarians who destroyed the Roman civilisation, it was only when they had acquired certain commonly accepted beliefs that they attained a measure of cohesion and emerged from anarchy.

Plainly it is not for nothing that nations have always displayed intolerance in the defence of their opinions.This intolerance, open as it is to criticism from the philosophic standpoint, represents in the life of a people the most necessary of virtues.

It was to found or uphold general beliefs that so many victims were sent to the stake in the Middle Ages and that so many inventors and innovators have died in despair even if they have escaped martyrdom.It is in defence, too, of such beliefs that the world has been so often the scene of the direst disorder, and that so many millions of men have died on the battlefield, and will yet die there.

同类推荐
  • 徐文长先生佚稿

    徐文长先生佚稿

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • WHITE FANG

    WHITE FANG

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 外科痈疽疔毒门

    外科痈疽疔毒门

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Lost Road

    The Lost Road

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 王氏谈録

    王氏谈録

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 万界主宰

    万界主宰

    极限之王韩尘重生在韩家废物身上,凭借异宝吞天石打破九阴九阳之体的禁锢,在上古混沌神兽祖龙的指引下,他开启一段波澜壮阔的异界之旅。从渺小的蝼蚁到只手遮天的巨擘,韩尘诛妖灭魔,脚踏万宗,唯我独尊,成就万界主宰!
  • 立足本职

    立足本职

    本书阐述了“善于规划职业路径的人将走向成功”这样一个主旨。就像去一个地方需要事先画好地图一样,职业生涯规划勾勒的是职业发展的路径,出色的职业规划将带领我们走上成功之路。
  • 狂妃驯服邪王:王妃傲视天下

    狂妃驯服邪王:王妃傲视天下

    强魂入驻废柴体,逆天改命,强势崛起。引来无数争抢,天下最强的仙剑?她用来切西瓜。天之娇宠的仙品灵兽?烤的味道一级赞啊。绝世无双的功法秘籍?丢给路边小青蛇修炼了。圣子圣女高贵圣洁不可侵犯?都排成一排给她抬轿子,端痰盂!不服?本小姐专治各种不服!当她举世皆敌,他不离不弃,与她一起背离整个世界。当她唯我独尊,他为了她扫平阴谋,替她铺开一张如墨山河画卷。女主纨绔,强大,腹黑。
  • 灵蛇传说

    灵蛇传说

    他,一条修行千年的灵蛇,她,一个单纯的富家千金。她无意救了他的性命,却在出嫁那天被他抢走,毁了清白,她自尽以明心意,他失踪两年。两年后他又使手段明媒正娶了她。一开始如胶似漆,他带她逃离家乡,她却发现他有双修女伴,人女追逐,狐仙纠缠。人妖之恋,能走多远?
  • 左手封魔

    左手封魔

    沈林打破祖先雕塑,意外获得传说中的洪荒心魔!战恶魔城,上天山峰,沈林誓要将曾经看不起他的人踩在脚下!心魔,所有符文师梦寐以求的东西!潘多拉魔盒也即将开启,爆发出无穷的威力!人类们!颤抖吧!
  • 四库全书精华(第二卷)

    四库全书精华(第二卷)

    《四库全书》是我国现存最大的一部官修丛书,是清乾隆皇帝诏谕编修的我国乃至世界最大的文化工程。全书分经、史、子、集四部,故名四库。它基本上囊括了古代所有图书。清代乾隆初年,学者周水年提出“儒藏说”,主张把儒家著作集中在一起,供人借阅。这是编纂《四库全书》的社会基础。该书选取四库全书中的精彩篇章,对其进行了较为全面的解读。
  • 冒险风暴

    冒险风暴

    新的风暴已经出现,怎么能够停滞不前。穿越时空,竭尽全力。我会来到你身边!……书友群:253405334,喜欢聊天的兄弟姐妹快来这里集结!
  • 朽圣

    朽圣

    生于死,魔于圣,一切只在一念之间。三界六道,万仙争霸,群雄并起,巫族纵横,谁能再这茫茫的大世界当中,寻找出属于他自己的道,从此踏上巅峰?佛教、阐教、截教、上古十二巫,一个个强大的存在,引导着一切的修者。杨子成带着神秘的身世,从一个小小的宗派弟子,向着巅峰一步一步的走去,每一步都留下了一个深深的脚印,每一步都让世人为之震撼。没有人可以阻挡他前进的步伐,因为,每一个想要阻挡他前进步伐的人,他们都已经陨落在了他的脚下。
  • 阴阳小道士

    阴阳小道士

    杨真晚归回家的时候,一不小心踏入了阴阳驿站,吃了死人饭喝了黄尸水,村里的阴阳先生说我活不长了,除非学道,跟随阴阳先生数十载踏入红尘除妖灭邪,《阴阳宗术》的秘密,传世名画的诅咒,湘西的长生墓等等
  • 鱼沉雁杳天涯路

    鱼沉雁杳天涯路

    他们本是单纯、毫无城府的四个有为青年。殊不知在光彩的生活背后,却一直隐藏着仇恨的漩涡将他们缓缓吞噬,并拽向地狱的深渊。当绝望来临之际,他们的亲情、友情、爱情变成了挣扎、逃避、叫喊。其中男主人公受到一次次不可思议的打击下、善良的他最终也沦落为社会底层的陪葬品。那么在他们复杂的故事里究竟谁对?谁错?还是请读者朋友们自己去理解吧。