Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Paperback Author: Charles Mackay | Language: English | ISBN:
B0040V5E7O | Format: PDF, EPUB
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- Paperback: 502 pages
- Publisher: FQ Books (July 6, 2010)
- Language: English
- ASIN: B0040V5E7O
- Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 1.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
This Kindle edition consists of two long volumes, published in 1852. It details various mass delusions and obsessions, varying from hair styles to the crusades to financial crises to the burning of witches - and much more.
I enjoyed this book immensely, despite its length, but found it to be unsettling. The details of each of the many events covered are different, but there is an underlying theme that should be a warning to modern man. The author points out that the madness that periodically breaks out among the masses would, hopefully, be less in the future. If only he knew that these follies would continue up to the present day.
Each of the events he described had the same pattern:
Firstly, some individual or small circle of individuals would make a claim. The purpose could be profit, vengeance, or superstition.
Secondly, some larger segment of society (such as the Church, stock jobbers, etc.) would proclaim a societal emergency or, even, a great opportunity.
Thirdly, the masses would adopt, unquestioningly and illogically, the truth of the original claim, often twisting the claim in a manner the originators would not have imagined or possibly approved.
Fourthly, more reasonable men or organizations would be shunned or punished as heretics for failing to accept the popular delusion.
Lastly, the folly would become so reprehensible or unsustainable that it would fade away, only (regrettably) to be replaced by another.
In our times, we consider ourselves modern and rational. Many readers might look on the examples described in this book to be so absurd as to irrelevant to our times. However, our follies follow the same pattern - sometimes more subtle but often just as costly and often more deadly.
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