《乌合之众·第一编·群体的心理·群体的一般特征·心理统一律》第11节
The conclusion to be drawn from what precedes is, that the crowd is always intellectually inferior to the isolated individual, but that, from the point of view of feelings and of the acts these feelings provoke, the crowd may, according to circumstances, be better or worse than the individual. All depends on the nature of the suggestion to which the crowd is exposed. This is the point that has been completely misunderstood by writers who have only studied crowds from the criminal point of view. Doubtless a crowd is often criminal, but also it is often heroic. It is crowds rather than isolated individuals that may be induced to run the risk of death to secure the triumph of a creed or an idea, that may be fired with enthusiasm for glory and honour, that are led on--almost without bread and without arms, as in the age of the Crusades--to deliver the tomb of Christ from the infidel, or, as in '93, to defend the fatherland. Such heroism is without doubt somewhat unconscious, but it is of such heroism that history is made. Were peoples only to be credited with the great actions performed in cold blood, the annals of the world would register but few of them.
注释摘要
在这段结论中，勒庞试图用一个让步结构来平衡他此前对群体的严苛评判。他承认了自己理论中看似矛盾的张力：群体在智力上永远低于孤立的个人，但在情感驱动的行动上，却可能比个人更好，也可能更坏。这个好坏不取决于群体成员的素质，而完全取决于群体所接受的暗示的性质。这是一种彻底的情境决定论，勒庞用这个论点来反驳他同时代许多只从犯罪学角度研究群体的学者。 他举的历史例子正…