The Terror of the 'Majority': Losing the Self and Succumbing to Barbaric Impulses
Gustave Le Bon's seminal insight into crowd psychology is straightforward: the instant an individual merges with a crowd, intellect plummets, and emotion prevails.
1. Anonymity's Lethal Poison
When immersed in a crowd of tens of thousands of protestors or candlelight demonstrators, the individual, shielded by the anonymity that renders their actions untraceable, loses self-control and exhibits a primal, violent conformity, much like an animal. This also constitutes the neuroscientific basis for democracy's profound susceptibility to populist demagoguery.