- The Desire for Change
- Movements are driven by people who want change
- People who are failing want to blame the world
- The powerless sometimes don’t want change because they’re used to it
- Change comes from those who believe they have some power
- Actions may not be noble in chase of the hope
- They must be highly discontent, not destitute
- Must believe in something strongly and ideally not be aware of how difficult it will be
- The Desire for Substitutes
- People who do not see a positive future don’t want regular self-advancement
- wants something that lets them give up themselves for something “noble”
- when people join for self-benefit the vigorous stage is over
- great vanity in selflessness
- sacrifice today for a better future
- want something to give their lives meaning
- The Interchangeability of Mass Movements
- people have been known to switch and find new movements
- maybe social, religious, national, etc
- there are ways to counteract movements with other movements
- physical migrations are practiced by most mass movements
- taking land and moving together is a uniting force
- The Role of the Undesirables in Human Affairs
- Inferior elements drive change because no reverence for the present
- people unhappy with the status quo
- The Poor
- new poor: people who have recently lost are more discontent
- the abjectly poor: surviving can’t worry about higher ideals. needs to feel within reach.
- the free poor: if not capable, freedom doesn’t mean much to you. join a mass movement to escape individual responsibility. prefer equality to freedom.
- the creative poor: creativity bolsters self-confidence. As this declines, more frustration
- the unified poor: close-knit groups are almost immune. during the upheaval stage, tries to break ties, and when building stability encourages them
- people want to feel part of a whole
- may arise when existing structures are weakening
- Misfits
- young are impressionable temporarily
- hard for veterans to return to unstructured life
- people that can’t reach fulfillment on their own
- The Inordinately Selfish
- often people pushing selflessness the most are ineffectual and lost faith in their own selves
- The Ambitious Facing Unlimited Opportunities
- The ambitious are ready to jump on something
- e.g. land-grabbers, get-rich-quick bunch
- Minorities
- minorities trying to fit in but having trouble most frustrated
- The Bored
- people not engaged in something
- bored wives need to find meaning
- The Sinners
- criminals can use as a sense of self-sacrifice and atonement
- Preface
- any group that perpetuates united action and self-sacrifice exhibits the behavior of mass movement
- when estrange the self, new attitudes and impulses emerge. separates them from reality and focus on a future
- separate the individual from the self by assimilating them into a collective body
- Factors Promoting Self-sacrifice
- like a primitive state of living (tribes)
- life is like being part of the group
- there is a strength to it
- hard to withstand torture or annihilation on your own individual strength
- hard for people to accept killing or dying without some greater cause
- rituals separate one from the self
- tries to make you unhappy with the present
- past can be used to “bridge” back to a glorious past (can be imagined)
- people who are satisfied are less likely to want future changes
- don’t want to try to achieve the possible because if you fail, it’s on you
- if you attempt the impossible not on you
- community leaders not the same as successful business leaders
- mass movement does not want you to reason on your own
- to elicit change need people to mold into a flexible homogenous group
- some people feel like they need to prove their worth, attachment is more important than the cause itself
- when it’s more occupied by the present means it arrived
- in mass movement force of people can be harnassed
- Unifying Agents
- having a tangible enemy is effective
- better if strong and foreign
- hatred comes from self-contempt
- feeling of guilt hidden by self-righteousness
- more likely to hate them if I wronged them.
- wronging perpetuates hate. magnanimity blunts hate.
- treat them inhuman to justify
- people you despise/pity don’t hate them as much
- hate those you think are better want to imitate them
- less we like ourselves more we want to be like others
- lack of distinct individuality leaves the mind without guards
- if feeling superior less likely to imitate
- most mass movements try to block outside influence
- propaganda doesn’t change minds it reinforces what people already believe
- fanaticism leads to violence and needs convincing self it was justified
- mass movement not just through persuasion but also by force
- strong proselytizing may indicate weakness in the belief
- leaders don’t create conditions, eagerness to follow must be there
- do need a leader to paint a breathtaking vision
- a leader must dominate and inspire a small group of able men
- most important is a complete disregard of opinion and a defiance of the world
- don’t need original ideas
- followers really want an escape from their own failures
- in free society, leader respects the people
- in a mass movement, extract obedience and treat them as cowards
- people who do things together are united
- suspicion on others
- willing to sacrifice family/friends for holy cause
- Men of Words
- the prevailing order has to be discredited
- done by men with grievances
- masses are initially conservative and wary of the fanatic
- the articulate minority lays the groundwork
- they want superior status
- once acknowledged buy power they side with the status quo
- revolution comes from the educated when they are not part of the current regime
- to be successful in a mass movement need to win over the intellectuals
- men of action come later
- they want blind faith not free thinkers
- other intellectuals go along with it and rationalize it because they are cowards
- individualists lose the movement which is taken over by those who don’t care about individuals
- this works because its in alignment with the passion of the masses
- they aren’t looking for self-realization but freedom from the intolerable burden of their existence
- The Fanatics
- fanatic wants to blow up the old
- the creative who can find fulfillment wants to keep the present
- those that can’t want to overturn it
- The Practical Men of Action
- fanatic wants to blow up the old
- the creative who can find fulfillment want to keep the present
- those that can’t want to overturn it
- Good and Bad Mass Movements
- should not last long
- stifles individual creativity
- the blindness of the fanatic is a source of strength but causes intellectual sterility and emotional monotony
- they are barren of new beginnings
- a good leader knows when to end it
- can be used by a society when survival is threatened
- it is a tool
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