Leaders in touch with popular feeling are quickly conscious of these
reactions. They know that high prices are pressing upon the mass, or
that certain classes of individuals are becoming unpopular, or that
feeling towards another nation is friendly or hostile. But, always
barring the effect of suggestion which is merely the assumption of
leadership by the reporter, there would be nothing in the feeling of
the mass that fatally determined the choice of any particular policy.
All that the feeling of the mass demands is that policy as it is
developed and exposed shall be, if not logically, then by analogy and
association, connected with the original feeling.
So when a new policy is to be launched, there is a preliminary bid for
community of feeling, as in Mark Antony's speech to the followers of
Brutus. [Footnote: Excellently analyzed in Martin, _The Behavior of
Crowds,_ pp. 130-132,] In the first phase, the leader vocalizes the
prevalent opinion of the mass. He identifies himself with the familiar
attitudes of his audience, sometimes by telling a good story,
sometimes by brandishing his patriotism, often by pinching a
grievance. Finding that he is trustworthy, the multitude milling
hither and thither may turn in towards him. He will then be expected
to set forth a plan of campaign. But he will not find that plan in the
slogans which convey the feelings of the mass.
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