What Is The ‘Nation’?

One device of leadership is to control individual behavior by psychological means. Gustave Le Bon’s 1895 book “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind” outlines this phenomenon. The leader uses events to short-circuit rational thought and regress people to their unconscious and ancient fears, drives and instincts. I don’t believe, as he did, that there is a crowd “mind” but he did identify a real process by which the leader’s suggestions create a primitive, unreasoning and emotional response among many listeners, so that they become willing to follow him. They become united as a crowd in how they are reacting and as a group of followers.

The power of a leader expert in the technique of creating a crowd and who uses events as a backdrop to his appeals and stories is enhanced when he can reach millions upon millions of viewers through mass media. It is further enhanced when the media repeat over and over his messages. It is his goal to tell a simple story that frames the issue so effectively that it cuts off rational criticism and creates a mass following.

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