The Crowd · Chapter
The Morality of Crowds explained
This chapter explores the dual nature of crowd morality, arguing that crowds can be both morally inferior and superior to individuals.
What happens
This chapter explores the dual nature of crowd morality, arguing that crowds can be both morally inferior and superior to individuals. While crowds are impulsive and capable of criminal acts due to the release of primitive instincts, they also exhibit lofty virtues such as abnegation, self-sacrifice, and disinterestedness. Personal interest rarely motivates crowds; instead, they are driven by ideals, glory, and honor. Examples include the Crusaders, volunteers of 1793, and the September massacres, where crowds displayed unexpected honesty. The chapter concludes that crowds' unconscious moral virtues are essential for civilization.
Themes in this chapter
Morality of Crowds
Core theme: crowds exhibit a dual morality—lower due to primitive instincts, higher through self-sacrifice and devotion.
Irrationality and Credulity
Crowds act on unconscious impulses and ideals rather than rational self-interest, as seen in wars and strikes.
Unconscious Motivation
Crowds are guided by unconscious considerations, practicing virtues without reasoning.
Characters to notice
- Crowds
Central subject of the chapter; analyzed for their moral duality—capable of both ferocity and lofty devotion.
- Taine
Cited for observing that perpetrators of the September massacres deposited pocketbooks and jewels on committee tables, showing unexpected honesty.
- The Hero
Mentioned in the context of theater crowds demanding exaggerated virtues from the hero.
- Unknown Narrator
The narrator provides analysis and examples throughout the chapter.
Key passages
“The morality of crowds, according to the suggestions under which they act, may be much lower or much higher than that of the individuals composing them.”
Depending on the influences they follow, crowds can be either far more immoral or far more moral than the individuals within them.
Opening thesis establishing the dual nature of crowd morality.
“Personal interest is very rarely a powerful motive force with crowds, while it is almost the exclusive motive of the conduct of the isolated individual.”
Crowds are seldom driven by self-interest, unlike isolated individuals who are almost always motivated by it.
Key contrast between crowd and individual motivation.
“If disinterestedness, resignation, and absolute devotion to a real or chimerical ideal are moral virtues, it may be said that crowds often possess these virtues to a degree rarely attained by the wisest philosophers.”
If selflessness, acceptance, and total dedication to an ideal—whether real or imaginary—count as moral virtues, then crowds frequently display them more than the wisest thinkers.
Highlighting the elevated moral potential of crowds.