《乌合之众·第三编·不同群体的分类与描述·议会集会》第7节
"Debates in the House of Commons," says the English philosopher Maine, "may be constantly read in which the entire discussion is confined to an exchange of rather weak generalities and rather violent personalities. General formulas of this description exercise a prodigious influence on the imagination of a pure democracy. It will always be easy to make a crowd accept general assertions, presented in striking terms, although they have never been verified, and are perhaps not susceptible of verification." Too much importance cannot be attached to the "striking terms" alluded to in the above quotation. We have already insisted, on several occasions, on the special power of words and formulas. They must be chosen in such a way as to evoke very vivid images. The following phrase, taken from a speech by one of the leaders of our assemblies, affords an excellent example:-- "When the same vessel shall bear away to the fever-haunted lands of our penitentiary settlements the politician of shady reputation and the anarchist guilty of murder, the pair will be able to converse together, and they will appear to each other as the two complementary aspects of one and the same state of society." The image thus evoked is very vivid, and all the adversaries of the speaker felt themselves threatened by it. They conjured up a double vision of the fever-haunted country and the vessel that may carry them away; for is it not possible that they are included in the somewhat ill-defined category of the politicians menaced? They experienced the lurking fear that the men of the Convention must have felt whom the vague speeches of Robespierre threatened with the guillotine, and who, under the influence of this fear, invariably yielded to him.
注释摘要
勒庞在此援引英国法律史学家亨利·梅因对下院辩论的观察，并不是顺手引用一个权威名字，而是要借此证明，即便是世人眼中最为严肃、最讲程序的议会，其运作模式也深深受制于群体心理的法则。梅因观察到，议会辩论时常沦为空洞的泛泛而谈与激烈的人身攻击，而正是这种简化到极点的概括性套话，对所谓纯粹民主的想象力有着惊人的支配力。勒庞接过这个判断，进一步强调，能让群体接受的绝非…