Crowds: A Moving-Picture of DemocracyLee, Gerald Stanley
Philosophy
Crowds: A Moving-Picture of Democracy
Lee, Gerald Stanley
Crowds; Social problems
And so it has seemed to me that even if he is quite unimportant, any man
to-day who, in some public place, like a book, shall paint the picture
of his heart's desire, who shall throw up, as upon a screen, where all
men may see them, his most immediate and most pressing ideals, would
perform an important service. If a man's sole interest were to find out
what all men in the world want, the best way to do it would be for him
to say quite definitely, so that we could all compare notes, what he
wanted himself. Speaking for a planet has gone by, but possibly, if a
few of us but speak for ourselves, the planet will talk back, and we
shall find out at last what it really is that it wants.
The thing that many of us want most in the present grayness and din of
the world is some one to play with, or if the word "play" is not quite
the right word, some one with whom we can work with freedom and
self-expressiveness and joy. Nine men out of ten one meets to-day talk
with one as it were with their watches in their hands. The people who
are rich one sees everywhere, being run away with by their motor-cars;
and the people who are poor one sees struggling pitifully and for their
very souls, under great wheels and beneath machines.
Of course, I can only speak for myself. I do not deny that a little
while at a time I can sit by a brook in the woods and be happy; but if,
as it happens, I would rather have other people about me--people who do
not spoil things, I find that the machines about me everywhere have made
most people very strange and pathetic in the woods. They cannot sit by
brooks, many of them; and when they come out to the sky, it looks to
them like some mere, big, blue lead roof up over their lives. Perhaps I
am selfish about it, but I cannot bear to see people looking at the sky
in this way....
* * * * *
So, as I have watched my fellow human beings, what I have come to want
most of all in this world is the inspired employer--or what I have
called the inspired millionaire or organizer; the man who can take the
machines off the backs of the people and take the machines out of their
wits, and make the machines free their bodies and serve their souls.
If we ever have the inspired employer, he will have to be made by the
social imagination of the people, by creating the spirit of expectation
and challenge toward the rich among the masses of the people.
I believe that the time has come when the world is to make its last
stand for idealism, great men, and crowds.
I believe that great men can be really great, that they can represent
crowds. I believe that crowds can be really great, that they can know
great men.
The most natural kind of great man for crowds to know first will
probably be a kind of everyday great man or business statesman, the man
who represents all classes, and who proves it in the way he conducts his
business.
I have called this man the Crowdman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account