Minding the Crowd

by Lila Rajiva

Can a crowd ever be wise or good? There seems to be no folly however mad, no crime, however savage, that a mob of men goaded by passion cannot commit. When they are thrown into the company of legions of their fellow men, some chemistry turns humans who are individually of irreproachable integrity and unimpeachable prudence, into stark raving blockheads. That this is sometimes called democracy does not improve matters. But if we did not have the tyranny of the majority, say the collectivists anxiously, would we not end up only with the tyranny of the minority? If we reject democracy, won't we end up with plutocracy?
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