248 WARFARE IN THE HUMAN BODY 



conscience. A man in a crowd can commit crimes and 

 come out without knowing he has done so. It's a new 

 organism, a creature not in the books. Drag one of its 

 parts out, knock him down and cool him, and see him 

 come back slowly to humanity again. I've seen it. The 

 psychology of a crowd is the psychology of a pure in- 

 stinctive. A madman may act as a crowd acts ; he's 

 gone down to the raging level of a mass. The hot average 

 of an angry number is a devilish thing." 



Some day those of you who remain in the army may 

 be called upon to do the most disagreeable duty of a 

 soldier, which is to act in civil disorder. Then you may 

 unluckily learn the nature of a savage crowd. Instinctively 

 you will recognize that it is an organism, and see that it 

 has a strength of passion single in aim. You will endeavour 

 to split it up, to keep it moving ceaselessly lest it should 

 get set and act. We may be thankful to know that these 

 very qualities and passions directed and trained and 

 organized can give us the army which we need. 



In the crowd considered as a simple organism a single 

 thought almost always dominates. It cannot, as a rule, 

 be a lofty or ennobling thought, for without much training 

 a mass of people are rarely capable of being moved by 

 fine motives. Therefore you need not be surprised when 

 you recognize the fact that an organized crowd in action 

 is often a destructive organism. You may see the same 

 in strikes where the nervous system of a trades union 

 fails to control a badly organized body of men. Of course 

 in every crowd there are the rudiments of a nervous 

 system : somebody springs to the front and becomes a 

 ringleader. If he speaks, and speaks successfully, he 

 always represents what the others want and usually puts 

 it in a few words. What we are accustomed to call con- 



