《乌合之众·第二编·群体的意见与信念·群体意见与信念的间接因素》第12节
The conclusion to be drawn from what precedes is, that it is not in institutions that the means is to be sought of profoundly influencing the genius of the masses. When we see certain countries, such as the United States, reach a high degree of prosperity under democratic institutions, while others, such as the Spanish-American Republics, are found existing in a pitiable state of anarchy under absolutely similar institutions, we should admit that these institutions are as foreign to the greatness of the one as to the decadence of the others. Peoples are governed by their character, and all institutions which are not intimately modelled on that character merely represent a borrowed garment, a transitory disguise. No doubt sanguinary wars and violent revolutions have been undertaken, and will continue to be undertaken, to impose institutions to which is attributed, as to the relics of saints, the supernatural power of creating welfare. It may be said, then, in one sense, that institutions react on the mind of the crowd inasmuch as they engender such upheavals. But in reality it is not the institutions that react in this manner, since we know that, whether triumphant or vanquished, they possess in themselves no virtue. It is illusions and words that have influenced the mind of the crowd, and especially words-- words which are as powerful as they are chimerical, and whose astonishing sway we shall shortly demonstrate.
注释摘要
勒庞在这一段要得出一个在他看来具有普遍性的结论：制度本身没有独立的力量，它不能从根本上塑造或改变群体的精神。他用了一个在当时读者看来很有冲击力的对比——同样是民主制度，美国达到了高度繁荣，而拉丁美洲的西班牙语共和国却深陷可悲的无政府状态。既然制度形式相似，结果却如此不同，那么制度就不是造成伟大或衰落的真正原因。由此他推论，一个民族是由其性格所支配的，所有不…