《乌合之众·第一编·群体的心理·群体的观念、推理与想象力》第10节
The power of conquerors and the strength of States is based on the popular imagination. It is more particularly by working upon this imagination that crowds are led. All great historical facts, the rise of Buddhism, of Christianity, of Islamism, the Reformation, the French Revolution, and, in our own time, the threatening invasion of Socialism are the direct or indirect consequences of strong impressions produced on the imagination of the crowd. Moreover, all the great statesmen of every age and every country, including the most absolute despots, have regarded the popular imagination as the basis of their power, and they have never attempted to govern in opposition to it "It was by becoming a Catholic," said Napoleon to the Council of State, "that I terminated the Vendeen war. By becoming a Mussulman that I obtained a footing in Egypt. By becoming an Ultramontane that I won over the Italian priests, and had I to govern a nation of Jews I would rebuild Solomon's temple." Never perhaps since Alexander and Caesar has any great man better understood how the imagination of the crowd should be impressed. His constant preoccupation was to strike it. He bore it in mind in his victories, in his harangues, in his speeches, in all his acts. On his deathbed it was still in his thoughts.
注释摘要
勒庞在这一段里把全书最核心的命题推进到了一个具体的操作层面：群体的想象力，或者说大众被什么样的意象所打动，才是政治权力的真正基础。他用一连串气势宏大的历史例证来支撑这个判断——佛教、基督教、伊斯兰教的兴起，宗教改革，法国大革命，以及他眼中正汹涌而来的社会主义运动——所有这些被他视为“伟大历史事实”的事件，归根结底都不是理性论证的结果，而是某种强烈印象猛然撞…