CROWD (THE)


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	CROWD (THE) --- CRUELTY --- CRUISES CRYING --- CUBA . . CROWD (THE) see: "FOLLOWERS" see: "SHEEP" see "THE HUMAN RACE" for other related links Little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth. For a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love. --Francis Bacon (1561—1626) English philosopher and essayist. _Essays_ [1625], "Of Friendship" You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind-legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men. --Sir Max Beerbohm (1872—1956) English satirist and caricaturist. _Zuleika Dobson_ [1911] Personally I have no enthusiasm for organized jeering sections but I hold that the spontaneous right of raspberry should be denied to no one in America. --Heywood Broun (1888—1939) American journalist & father of Heywood Hale Broun. It is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners. --Albert Camus (1913—1960) French novelist, dramatist, and essayist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature. The public! The public! How many fools does it take to make up a public?" --Sébastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort (1741—1794) French playwright and conversationalist. If it has to choose who will be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas. --Jean Cocteau (1889—1963) French poet. 'It's always best on these occasions to do what the mob do.' 'But suppose there are two mobs?' suggested Mr. Snodgrass. 'Shout with the largest,' replied Mr. Pickwick. --Charles Dickens (1812—1870) English novelist. _The Pickwick Papers_ [1837] The mob has many heads, but no brains. --Thomas Fuller (1654—1734) English writer and physician. That community is already in the process of dissolution where each man begins to eye his neighbor as a possible enemy, where nonconformity with the accepted creed, political as well as religious, is a mark of disaffection; where denunciation, without specification or backing, takes the place of evidence; where orthodoxy chokes freedom of dissent; where faith in the eventual supremacy of reason has become so timid that we dare not enter our convictions in the open lists, to win or lose. --Learned Hand (1872—1961) American judge. Speech to the Board of Regents, University of the State of New York [24 October 1952]. - There is not a more mean, stupid, dastardly, pitiful, selfish, spiteful, envious, ungrateful animal than the Public. It is the greatest of cowards, for it is afraid of itself. --William Hazlitt (1778—1830) English essayist. _Table Talk_ [1821-1822], "On Living to One's Self" Every one in a crowd has the power to throw dirt: nine out of ten have the inclination. --William Hazlitt (1778—1830) English essayist. - Proximity to the crowd, to the majority view, spells the death of creativity. For a soul can create only when alone, and some are chosen for the flowering that takes place in the dark avenues of the night. --Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907—1972) Jewish theologian and philosopher. _A Passion for Truth_ [1973] - A crowd may easily enact the part of the executioner, but not less easily that of a martyr. --Gustave Le Bon (1841—1931) French social psychologist best known for his study of the psychological characteristics of crowds [EB]. _The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind_, 1.2.1, [1895] Viking Press edition [1960] A crowd is a servile flock that is incapable of [doing anything] without a master. --Gustave Le Bon (1841—1931) French social psychologist best known for his study of the psychological characteristics of crowds [EB]. _The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind_, 2.3.1, [1895] Viking Press edition [1960] - Every snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty. --Stanislaw Jerzy Lec (1909—1966) Polish writer. Those who know they are profound strive for clarity. Those who would like to seem profound strive for obscurity. For the crowd believes that if it cannot see to the bottom of something it must be profound. It is timid and dislikes going into the water. --Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900) German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture. _Die fröhilche Wissenschaft_ [1882] Whenever the roles of individuals within a group become specialized, it becomes both possible and easy for the individual to pass the moral buck to some other part of the group. In this way, not only does the individual forsake his conscience but the conscience of the group as a whole can become so fragmented and diluted as to be nonexistent. . . . The plain fact of the matter is that any group will remain inevitably potentially conscienceless and evil until such time as each and every individual holds himself or herself directly responsible for the behavior of the whole group — the organism — of which he or she is a part. --Scott Peck (1936—2005) American author. _People of the Lie_ What the crowd requires is mediocrity of the highest order. --Antoine-Augustin Préault (1809—1879) French sculptor. Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd. --Bertrand Russell (1872—1970) British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate. Most people are followers, not leaders. In fact, the more rapid the methods of communication, the more numerous will be the imitators. --Fulton John Sheen (1895—1979) Roman Catholic bishop; the first popular preacher to appear on television. _Thoughts For Daily Living_ [1955] He whose honor depends on the mob must day by day strive with the greatest anxiety, act and scheme in order to retain his reputation. For the mob is varied and inconstant, and therefore if a reputation is not carefully preserved it dies quickly. --Benedict de Spinoza (1632—1677) Dutch-Jewish philosopher, the foremost exponent of 17th century Rationalism. _Ethics_ [1677] pt. III We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. - Nearly four decades ago psychologist Stanley Milgram had a volunteer stand stock still on a busy New York sidewalk and look up at the sky. About one in every 25 passersby stopped to look up, too. When five volunteers were recruited to sky-gaze, nearly one in five passersby stopped to look up. When Milgram and his colleagues assembled a group of 18 volunteers to simultaneously look up at nothing in particular, nearly one in two passersby looked up to see what was going on, snarling traffic within moments. --_Washington Post_ [December 2007] - ----- muckle (adverb) ['mê-kl] Much, a great many, a large amount; large, great (Scots English). CRUELTY . . see "HURTING (SOMEONE)" for related links see "IMMORALITY" for other related links Boys throw stones at frogs for fun, but the frogs don't die in 'fun', but in sober earnest. --Bion the Borysthenite (325?—255? B.C.) Greek popular philosopher. In Plutarch _Moralia_. The wish to hurt, the momentary intoxication with pain, is the loophole through which the pervert climbs into the minds of ordinary men. --Jacob Bronowski (1908—1974) Polish-born mathematician and humanist. _The Face of Violence_ [1954] Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn! --Robert Burns (1759—1796) Scottish poet and songwriter. "Man was made to Mourn" [1786] O poor mortals, how ye make this earth bitter for each other. --Thomas Carlyle (1795—1881) Scottish historian and political philosopher. Being cruel to be kind is just ordinary cruelty with an excuse made for it . . . And it is right that it should be more resented, as it is. --Ivy Compton-Burnett (1884—1969) English novelist. _Daughters and Sons_ [1937] Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain; That feeds upon the sobs and dying shrieks Of harmless nature. --William Cowper (1731—1800) English poet and hymnodist. "The Task", 3.326 [1785] The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us. But, we don't ask for their love; only for their fear. --Heinrich Himmler (1900—1945) German Nazi politician, police administrator, and military commander. My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt. --Anna Sewell (1820—1878) English author. Caligula's familiar order [when a victim was being executed] was: 'Make him feel that he is dying' ... He often quoted Accius' line: 'Let them hate me, so long as they fear me.' --Suetonius [Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus] (c. 69—c. 122) Roman biographer and antiquarian. _"Galus Caligula"_ [c. 120] ----- truculent [TRUCK-yuh-luhnt], adjective: 1. Fierce; savage; ferocious; barbarous. 2. Cruel; destructive; ruthless. CRUISES . . see "TRAVEL" for related links - "Spacious suites to enjoy as you cruise the Norwegian fjords." This is accompanied by a picture of a woman in an evening dress sitting at a small table while her husband in a tuxedo pours her a glass of champagne. What the picture doesn't indicate is that they have to hoist the table on the sofa before they can open the door, he is sitting on the toilet seat lid, the room is below the water line, the curtains cover a wall, and they are both trolls. --Erma Bombeck (1927—1996) American humorist. - I would die of a cruise which is a super delight to vast numbers of travelers. It bores me even to think of such a trip, not that I mind luxury and lashings of delicious food and starting to drink at 11 a. m. with a glass of champagne to steady the stomach. But how about the organized jollity, the awful intimacy of tablemates, the endless walking round and round because you can't walk anywhere else, the claustrophobia? --Martha Gellhorn (1908—1998) American novelist and journalist. - I have now seen sucrose beaches and water a very bright blue. I have seen an all-red leisure suit with flared lapels. I have smelled suntan lotion spread over 2,100 pounds of hot flesh. I have been addressed as "Mon" in three different nations. I have seen 500 upscale Americans dance the Electric Slide. I have seen sunsets that looked computer-enhanced. I have (very briefly) joined a conga line. I have seen a lot of really big white ships. I have seen schools of little fish with fins that glow. I have seen and smelled all 145 cats inside the Ernest Hemingway residence in Key West, Florida. I now know the difference between straight bingo and Prize-O. I have seen fluorescent luggage and fluorescent sunglasses and fluorescent pince-nez and over twenty different makes of rubber thong. I have heard steel drums and eaten conch fritters and watched a woman in a silver lamé projectile vomit inside a glass elevator. I have pointed rhythmically at the ceiling to the two-four beat of the same disco music I hated pointing to the ceiling to in 1977. --David Foster Wallace (1962—2008) American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. - CRYING . . see: "EYES" see: "TEARS" see "UNHAPPINESS" for other related links You may forget the one with whom you have laughed, but never the one with whom you have wept. --Kahlil Gibran (1883—1931) Lebanese poet. Life is made up of sobs, sniffles and smiles, with sniffles predominating. --O. Henry [William Sydney Porter] (1862—1910) American short-story writer. "The Gift of the Magi" _The Four Million_ [1906] He does not weep who does not see. --Victor Hugo (1802—1885) French poet, dramatist, and novelist. This world is all a fleeting show, For man's illusion given; The smiles of joy, the tears of woe, Deceitful shine, deceitful flow, There's nothing true but Heaven. --Thomas Moore (1779—1852) Irish poet, satirist, composer, and musician. _This World Is All a Fleeting Show_ - One summer, when I was eight, my folks and some relatives rented cabins at Sag Harbor on Long Island. I was outside by myself playing mumblety- peg, trying to make the knife stick into the ground, when a piece of dirt flew up and lodged under my eyelid. I ran crying into the cabin, where my Aunt Laurice managed to get the irritant out, while I continued bawling. When I went back outside, I overheard her say to Aunt Gytha, 'I don't know about that boy. He's such a crybaby.' It stung me then, and the fact that I vividly remember the incident almost fifty years later suggests my youthful devastation. I remember thinking, nobody's ever going to see me cry again. I did not always make it. --Colin L. Powell (1937— ) Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [1989—1993] and Secretary of State [2001—2005]. _My American Journey_ [1995], "Luther and Arie's Son" - The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the old man who will not laugh is a fool. --George Santayana (1863—1952) Spanish-born philosopher and critic. _Dialogues in Limbo_ [1925] - How much better it is to weep at joy than to joy at weeping. --William Shakespeare (1564—1616) English dramatist. _Much Ado About Nothing_ [1598—1599] To weep is to make less the depth of grief. --William Shakespeare (1564—1616) English dramatist. _King Henry VI_ [1590—1591] Pt. 3 - Laugh and the world laughs with you, Weep and you weep alone. --Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850—1919) American author and poet. _Solitude_ [1883] ----- caterwaul [KAT-uhr-wawl], intransitive verb: 1. To make a harsh cry. 2. To have a noisy argument. noun: A shrill, discordant sound. Ex.: "In the early days, when people were still shocked by the novelty of cursing, screaming, caterwauling emotional incontinents attacking each other on stage, he [Jerry Springer] used to produce high-falutin' justifications for the show. --Paul Hoggart, "Paul Hoggart's television choice," Times (London) [9 December 2000] lachrymose (adj.) 1. Crying or tending to cry easily and often 2. So sad as to make people cry pule [PYOOL], intransitive verb: To whimper; to whine. Ex.: The first lady initially flourished as a wronged wife precisely because she endured her humiliation so stoically; she did not whine or pule or treat her pain as license to behave badly. --Michelle Cottle, "God Almighty", _New Republic_ [6 September 1999] CUBA . . see: "CASTRO, FIDEL" see "PLACES" for other related links - But the scale of the restoration of Havana is as nothing compared with the scale of its ruination. It is quite literally crumbling away. One of the most magnificent of its many magnificent streets is known as the Prado, a wide avenue that leads to the sea, with a central tree-lined marble walkway down which people stroll at night in the balmy air. Some of the beautifully proportioned mansions along the Prado have collapsed into rubble since the last time I was there; others have their facades — all that remains of them-propped up by wooden struts. The palace along the Prado that houses the national school of ballet is a mere shell, the ground floor containing nothing but rubble: it is extraordinary to hear the sound of répétiteurs emerging from the upper floor of this shell. Havana is like Beirut, without having gone through the civil war to achieve the destruction. --Theodore Dalrymple [pen name of Anthony (A.M.) Daniels] (1949— ) English prison doctor and writer. "Why Havana Had To Die" When you look into the homes that the people have made among the ruins, there are the small, heartbreaking signs of pride and self-respect that one also sees in the huts of Africa: the carefully tended plastic flowers and other cheap ornaments, for example. A taste for kitsch among the well-to-do is a sign of spiritual impoverishment; but among the poor, it represents a striving for beauty, an aspiration without the likelihood of fulfillment. Only the old look downcast or crushed: old people's thoughts turn naturally to the past, and the contrast between the Havana of their youth and the Havana of their dotage must be painful to contemplate. --Theodore Dalrymple [pen name of Anthony (A.M.) Daniels] (1949— ) English prison doctor and writer. ibid. - I candidly confess that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with Florida, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being. --Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826) American statesman and president [1801—1809]. In a letter to James Monroe [24 October 1823]. - It's incredible! ... They have a man that was ... instructed by the CIA and the Attorney General [Robert Kennedy] to assassinate Castro after the Bay of Pigs ... so he [Castro] tortured [them] and they told him all about it. [Castro] called Oswald and a group in and told them ... Go ... get the job done. --Lyndon B. Johnson (1908—1973) American Democratic statesman, President [1963—1969]. Telephone call to the attorney general, Ramsey Clark, 1967; in Gus Russo _Live by the Sword_ [1998] p.395. & see: You can imagine what the reaction of the country would have been if this information [about Cuban involvement] came out. I was afraid of war. --Lyndon B. Johnson (1908—1973) American Democratic statesman, President [1963—1969]. To the columnist Drew Pearson _Washington Post_ [14 November 1993]. - - This urgent transformation of Cuba into an important strategic base — by the presence of these large, long-range and clearly offensive weapons of sudden mass-destruction — constitutes an explicit threat to the peace and security of all the Americas. --John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917—1963) American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1961—1963]. [22 October 1962] In M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.} _History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 885. Cohan & Major point out: In Oct. 1962 the United States detected the installation of Soviet nuclear missile sites in Cuba, less than 100 miles from the American mainland. This produced the gravest international crisis of the post-1945 era. Given the long- standing American proprietary attitude to Cuba, this was an extremely dangerous move for the USSR to make, and it brought the world close to nuclear war. & see We're eyeball to eyeball and I think the other fellow just blinked. --U.S. secretary of state Dean Rusk (1909—1994) [24 October 1962]. In M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.} _History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 885. Cohan & Major add: When Washington imposed a naval blockade on Cuba, the Soviet Union backed down and the missiles were withdrawn in exchange for a secret American pledge never again to mount an invasion of Cuba. - - Unfazed by the Bay of Pigs fiasco, [John F.] Kennedy endorsed a plan proposed by Edward Lansdale, who reported to the Defense Department, for the CIA to engage in other covert action aimed at Cuba. Called MONGOOSE, the plan included sabotage against oil refineries and storage tanks. Robert F. Kennedy, the attorney general, in particular pressured the CIA to engage in these activities. As it turned out, most of the agents recruited by the CIA were double agents who reported back to Castro and thwarted the plans. To embarrass the agency, Castro later ran hours of video on national television of CIA officers meeting with Cuban double agents. "Castro knew about everything," [Sam] Halpern said. The CIA's efforts not only were thwarted, they were absurd. The CIA plotted to humiliate Castro with his own people by trying to get his beard to fall off — something that only someone whose level of maturity had not advanced beyond kindergarten could have dreamed up. --Ronald Kessler Jounalist and author of non-fiction. _The CIA at War_ [2003], Chapter 8 - Operation Mongoose was the secret effort approved by President Kennedy, and spurred by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to make Fidel Castro disappear. The Kennedys were "operating a damned Murder, Inc. in the Caribbean," in the indelicate words of President Lyndon B. Johnson. --Tim Wiener _New York Times_ [23 November 1997] "The Trouble With Assassinations" end page \| CALAMITIES - CALM \| CALUMNY - CAMPAIGN FINANCING \| CAMPAIGNS & CANADA \| CANCER - CAN'T WIN \| CAPITALISM \| CAREFREE - CARPE DIEM \| CARTER (JIMMY) - CATS & DOGS \| CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES - CENSORSHIP \| CERTAINTY - CHANGE \| CHANGING (ONE'S MIND) & CHANGING TIMES \| CHARACTER \| CHARACTER ASSASINATION - CHEERFULNESS \| CHEER UP! - CHILDHOOD \| CHILDREN \| CHILDREN'S RHYME \| CHILE & CHINA \| CHOCOLATE - CHRISTIANITY \| CHRISTMAS \| CHURCH - CIGARS \| CIRCUMSTANCES & CITIES \| CIVILITY - CIVIL RIGHTS \| CLARITY - CLICHES \| CLOTHES - COFFEE \| COLD - COLORS \| COMEDY \| COMFORT - COMMON SENSE \| COMMUNICATION \| COMMUNISM \| COMPANIONSHIP - COMPASSION \| COMPETITION - COMPLIMENTS \| COMPOSERS - CONDUCTORS \| CONFESSION - CONQUEST \| CONSCIENCE - CONTENTED \| CONTEXT - CONVENTIONAL WISDOM \| CONVERSATION \| CONVICTION & COOKING \| COOLIDGE - CORPORATIONS \| CORRECTING - COURAGE \| COURT - COWS \| CREATIVITY - CRIME \| CRIME & PUNISHMENT - CROOKS \| CRITICISM & CRITICS \| CROWD (THE) - CUBA \| CULTURE - CYNICS \| \| A \| B \| C \| D \| E \| F \| G \| \| Return Home \| The Credits \| The Cast \| Act 1 \| Act 2 \| Act 3 \| The End \| The Reviews \| Photos \|