Quotes About Mass movements

Man kann sich die Konzeptionen, mit denen Massen gefüttert und bewegt werde, gar nicht kindlich genug vorstellen. Echte Ideen müssen, um massenbewegende historische Kräfte zu werden, im allgemeinen erst bis auf die Fassungskraft eines Kindes heruntersimpifiziert werden.

In place of the Absolute as determining history through the Zeitgeist, Marx offered mass movements and economic forces as the basic causes of every fundamental change, whether in the world of things or in the life of thought. Hegel, the imperial professor, had hatched the socialistic eggs.

A TABLE: FEW TO MANY—IT ENABLES GROWTH The birth of transformation starts in the heart of an individual, and the growth of the movement happens around a table. Mass movements don't begin with the masses. They begin with a few people. When people can sit around the table together as equal contributors, everyone wins.

Moreover, most mass movements are angry and gloomy movements, hostile toward well-adjusted, happy, and successful individuals. Again, this is evident

Realism about human beings nonetheless compels us to recognize that logical rigor and philosophical soundness carry little weight in civic discourse. They simply cannot stir up sufficient fervor, at least not among a large enough population, to drive mass movements. These movements, even the most virtuous, apparently need a dose of irrationalism to keep going.