《乌合之众·第二编·群体的意见与信念·群体信念与意见的变异限度》第9节
When, however, we analyse all these changes in appearance so far reaching, what do we find? All those that are in opposition with the general beliefs and sentiments of the race are of transient duration, and the diverted stream soon resumes its course. The opinions which are not linked to any general belief or sentiment of the race, and which in consequence cannot possess stability, are at the mercy of every chance, or, if the expression be preferred, of every change in the surrounding circumstances. Formed by suggestion and contagion, they are always momentary; they crop up and disappear as rapidly on occasion as the sandhills formed by the wind on the sea-coast. At the present day the changeable opinions of crowds are greater in number than they ever were, and for three different reasons. The first is that as the old beliefs are losing their influence to a greater and greater extent, they are ceasing to shape the ephemeral opinions of the moment as they did in the past. The weakening of general beliefs clears the ground for a crop of haphazard opinions without a past or a future. The second reason is that the power of crowds being on the increase, and this power being less and less counterbalanced, the extreme mobility of ideas, which we have seen to be a peculiarity of crowds, can manifest itself without let or hindrance.
注释摘要
勒庞在这一段做的是一个关键的收束性论证。他前面花了大量篇幅描述法国从大革命到拿破仑再到复辟时期众人政治立场、宗教信仰的反复剧变，仿佛群体的意见像风中的芦苇一样没有定性。但到了这一段，他突然反转：这些看似翻天覆地的变化，其实全都是浮在表层的波浪，底下有一股更深沉的、几乎不变的水流——那就是种族的一般信念与情感。他的逻辑很清楚：凡是跟这个深层结构相违背的变化，…