第48章

THE CLASSIFICATION OF CROWDS

The general divisions of crowds--Their classification.1.

HETEROGENEOUS CROWDS.Different varieties of them--The influence of race--The spirit of the crowd is weak in proportion as the spirit of the race is strong--The spirit of the race represents the civilised state and the spirit of the crowd the barbarian state.2.HOMOGENEOUS CROWDS.Their different varieties--Sects, castes, and classes.

We have sketched in this work the general characteristics common to psychological crowds.It remains to point out the particular characteristics which accompany those of a general order in the different categories of collectivities, when they are transformed into a crowd under the influences of the proper exciting causes.

We will, first of all, set forth in a few words a classification of crowds.

Our starting-point will be the simple multitude.Its most inferior form is met with when the multitude is composed of individuals belonging to different races.In this case its only common bond of union is the will, more or less respected of a chief.The barbarians of very diverse origin who during several centuries invaded the Roman Empire, may be cited as a specimen of multitudes of this kind.

On a higher level than these multitudes composed of different races are those which under certain influences have acquired common characteristics, and have ended by forming a single race.

They present at times characteristics peculiar to crowds, but these characteristics are overruled to a greater or less extent by racial considerations.

These two kinds of multitudes may, under certain influences investigated in this work, be transformed into organised or psychological crowds.We shall break up these organised crowds into the following divisions:--1.Anonymous crowds (street crowds, for example).

A.Heterogeneous 2.Crowds not anonymous crowds.(juries, parliamentary assemblies, &c.).

1.Sects (political sects, religious sects, &c.).

2.Castes (the military caste, B.Homogeneous the priestly caste, the crowds.working caste, &c.).

3.Classes (the middle classes, the peasant classes, &c.).

We will point out briefly the distinguishing characteristics of these different categories of crowds.

1.HETEROGENEOUS CROWDS

It is these collectivities whose characteristics have been studied in this volume.They are composed of individuals of any description, of any profession, and any degree of intelligence.

We are now aware that by the mere fact that men form part of a crowd engaged in action, their collective psychology differs essentially from their individual psychology, and their intelligence is affected by this differentiation.We have seen that intelligence is without influence in collectivities, they being solely under the sway of unconscious sentiments.

A fundamental factor, that of race, allows of a tolerably thorough differentiation of the various heterogeneous crowds.

We have often referred already to the part played by race, and have shown it to be the most powerful of the factors capable of determining men's actions.Its action is also to be traced in the character of crowds.A crowd composed of individuals assembled at haphazard, but all of them Englishmen or Chinamen, will differ widely from another crowd also composed of individuals of any and every description, but of other races--Russians, Frenchmen, or Spaniards, for example.