《乌合之众·第一编·群体的心理·群体的情感与道德》第17节
Unfortunately, this tendency of crowds towards exaggeration is often brought to bear upon bad sentiments. These sentiments are atavistic residuum of the instincts of the primitive man, which the fear of punishment obliges the isolated and responsible individual to curb. Thus it is that crowds are so easily led into the worst excesses. Still this does not mean that crowds, skilfully influenced, are not capable of heroism and devotion and of evincing the loftiest virtues; they are even more capable of showing these qualities than the isolated individual. We shall soon have occasion to revert to this point when we come to study the morality of crowds. Given to exaggeration in its feelings, a crowd is only impressed by excessive sentiments. An orator wishing to move a crowd must make an abusive use of violent affirmations. To exaggerate, to affirm, to resort to repetitions, and never to attempt to prove anything by reasoning are methods of argument well known to speakers at public meetings. Moreover, a crowd exacts a like exaggeration in the sentiments of its heroes. Their apparent qualities and virtues must always be amplified. It has been justly remarked that on the stage a crowd demands from the hero of the piece a degree of courage, morality, and virtue that is never to be found in real life.
注释摘要
这段文字的核心论点，是勒庞关于群体情感的一个关键推论：群体中的情感不仅简单，而且总是走向夸张。勒庞试图证明，这种夸张倾向会同时作用于善与恶两个方向，因此群体既能犯下最骇人听闻的罪行，也能成就最不计私利的英雄主义。他在这里的论证带有一种明显的双重性，既要解释群体的暴烈，又不想把群体完全归于低劣。 勒庞的逻辑起点，是认为群体中被释放出来的坏情感，本质上是原始人…