《乌合之众·第三编·不同群体的分类与描述·议会集会》第13节
The same phenomena of unconsciousness were to be witnessed during all the stormy sittings of the Convention. "They approved and decreed measures," says Taine, "which they held in horror--measures which were not only stupid and foolish, but measures that were crimes--the murder of innocent men, the murder of their friends. The Left, supported by the Right, unanimously and amid loud applause, sent to the scaffold Danton, its natural chief, and the great promoter and leader of the Revolution. Unanimously and amid the greatest applause the Right, supported by the Left, votes the worst decrees of the revolutionary government. Unanimously and amid cries of admiration and enthusiasm, amid demonstrations of passionate sympathy for Collot d'Herbois, Couthon, and Robespierre, the Convention by spontaneous and repeated re-elections keeps in office the homicidal government which the Plain detests because it is homicidal, and the Mountain detests because it is decimated by it. The Plain and the Mountain, the majority and the minority, finish by consenting to help on their own suicide. The 22 Prairial the entire Convention offered itself to the executioner; the 8 Thermidor, during the first quarter of an hour that followed Robespierre's speech, it did the same thing again." This picture may appear sombre. Yet it is accurate. Parliamentary assemblies, sufficiently excited and hypnotised, offer the same characteristics. They become an unstable flock, obedient to every impulsion. The following description of the Assembly of 1848 is due to M. Spuller, a parliamentarian whose faith in democracy is above suspicion. I reproduce it from the Revue litteraire, and it is thoroughly typical. It offers an example of all the exaggerated sentiments which I have described as characteristic of crowds, and of that excessive changeableness which permits of assemblies passing, from moment to moment, from one set of sentiments to another entirely opposite.
注释摘要
勒庞在此处援引的是历史学家泰纳对法国大革命时期国民公会的记述，意在论证议会集会在高度亢奋状态下会完全丧失个体意识，沦为标准的异质性群体。他所列举的例证极富张力：左派与右派在掌声中一致将丹东——这位革命的主要推动者——送上断头台；右派与左派又共同投票维持那个让他们自己胆战心惊的恐怖政府；平原派憎恶杀人，山岳派被屠杀，但两者最终都“同意促成自己的自杀”。在17…