"What you say and how you say it are two different things," he answered.
The thought was in his mind that Fanny was right. Doris was going crazy.
Her talk had an edge to it as if her voice were being carefully
repressed. He almost preferred her when she was silent, when her eyes
slept. Because now there was a hidden wildness to her. She was
suffering! The thought startled him. But that was it. The hate that
filled her voice came from a suffering inside. He wanted to reach over
and take her hand and whisper to her to be calm, but he continued to
listen without moving. There were things in what she said that always
held him. It was like learning secrets. She was still talking.
"Well, today they're shrieking and vomiting invective and you'd like
nothing better than to be the heroic leader of this pack of filthy
cowards. Would you? Well, it's not worth while this time. The whole
thing'll blow over. In a few weeks people will have forgotten about
private banks. And by the time you get the bill into the state
legislature the papers will be ignoring the whole business. Do you see?
There's nothing so tragic as the spectacle of a mob leader stranded high
and dry with a yesterday's crusade. And his mob off in another
direction. Remember, George, you're not dealing with people, with
reasoning men and women. You always forget this and you'll never get
ahead if you keep forgetting it. You're dealing with a single
creature--the crowd. A huge bellowing savage."
"I know, I know," Basine muttered. She was crazy. Something queer in her
head about people. "All people aren't like that, of course. But I
understand."
"You don't," she interrupted angrily. "All people are like that. Alone
people are one thing. They're alive and they reason a little. But when
they come together to overthrow governments or defend governments or
make laws or worship Gods, they vanish. A single creature takes their
place. And this single creature is a mysterious savage who howls and
spits and vomits and tears its hair and has orgasms of terror and
befouls itself."
Her eyes glared at Basine. With an effort she controlled her voice. She
continued in a passionate whisper.
"Don't you understand that yet? After all I've shown you. If you want to
get ahead, I can make you anything. Do you hear that? Anything.... I
can make you a leader ... a king. All you must learn is the way of
turning people into swine...."
"Please Doris, you get too excited. Please...."
"Into swine and swine crusades. We'll find ways of bringing them
together and the more swinish you can make people become, yes, the more
you can make them spew and shriek, the holier will become the cause of
this spewing and shrieking. These are elementals and you must trust me.
Do you hear?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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