The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Celebrating The Crowd At CPAC, v
A Religious Shape Assumed By All The Convictions Of Crowds

Posted on | February 11, 2012 | 1 Comment

by Smitty

Le Bon

Intolerance and fanaticism are the necessary accompaniments of the religious sentiment. They are inevitably
displayed by those who believe themselves in the possession of the secret of earthly or eternal happiness. These two characteristics are to be found in all men grouped together when they are inspired by a conviction of any kind. The Jacobins of the Reign of Terror were at bottom as religious as the Catholics of the Inquisition and their cruel ardor proceeded from the same source. (Le Bon, 94)

Yeah, those Combat Buddhists are really tearing up the joint, aren’t they? Le Bon’s cheap equation of the Roman Church with the Terror likely says more of him than of the Gospel. As a Christian, I yawn at being called a fanatic. Event the most un-Christ-like, odious members of the Westboro Baptist Church fall short of the characterization offered by Le Bon.

Fanatics are people for whom homicide bombing is a reachable conclusion. And I tolerate all people with the love Christ gave me. I do scoff at people who want to tell me 2+2=5. Does this make me intolerant? Or Le Bon an idiot?

Where the discussion of this chapter in The Crowd gets interesting is when you consider the connections between the Left and radical Islam. How contradictory is a situation where actual perpetrators are given a pass, politically and in the media, while the relatively innocent Christians are systematically demonized?

Perhaps the mainstream media is the crowd, and their anti-Enlightenment faith in Progressivism is the true object of fanaticism.

Previously. . .

  1. Celebrating The Crowd At CPAC
  2. Celebrating The Crowd At CPAC
  3. Celebrating The Crowd At CPAC, iii
    The Sentiments and Morality of Crowds
  4. Celebrating The Crowd At CPAC, iv
    The Ideas, Reasoning Power, and Imagination of Crowds
Category: CPAC

Comments

One Response to “Celebrating The Crowd At CPAC, v
A Religious Shape Assumed By All The Convictions Of Crowds”

  1. EBL
    February 11th, 2012 @ 12:43 pm

    There is an alternative to Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich…just sayin!