Friedrich Nietzsche - Terry Pratchett - World’s Busiest Train Station - The Borgias TV - Derren Brown - Nazi Rally - William Shakespeare - Oscar Wilde - Christine Feehan - Jaron Lanier - Edward Gibbon - Marcus du Sautoy TV - George Carlin -
Every select man strives instinctively for a citadel and a privacy, where he is Free from the crowd, the many, the majority – where he may forget ‘men who are the rule’, as their exception; – exclusive only of the case in which he is pushed straight to such men by a still stronger instinct, as a discerner in the great and exceptional sense. Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
The intelligence of that creature known as a crowd is the square root of the number of people in it. Terry Pratchett, Jingo
The world’s biggest crowds. World’s Busiest Train Station: Shinjuku, Channel 5 2013
Where are the cheering crowds? The welcoming populus? The Borgias: Nobody s1e9, King of France entering Rome, Showtime 2011
I’m about to play a little game of chance with an imaginary coin. Derren Brown: The Experiments: The Gameshow, Channel 4 2011
Ian always had two options – A or B. One good outcome and one with a bad. Tonight we’re looking at what happens when you put the power to make those choices in the hands of a faceless crowd. ibid.
Tonight’s experiment is about what happens when we’re allowed to act anonymously as part of a crowd. ibid.
Wearing these masks will ensure you can make your decisions anonymously. ibid.
Fuhrer, command! We will follow! Crowd chant at Nazi rallies
And still as he refused it, the rabblement hooted, and clapped their chapped hands, and threw up their sweaty nightcaps, and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar refused the crown that it had almost choked Caesar. William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar I ii 243-248, Casca to Cassius & Brutus
I won’t tell you that the world matters nothing, or the world’s voice, or the voice of society. They matter a good deal. They matter far too much. But there are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, completely – or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands. You have that moment now. Choose! Oscar Wilde
The trouble is not really in being alone, it’s being lonely. One can be lonely in the midst of a crowd, don’t you think? Christine Feehan, Dark Prince
Emphasizing the crowd means de-emphasizing individual humans in the design of society, and when you ask people not to be people, they revert to bad, mob-like behaviours. Jaron Lanier, You Are Not a Gadget
Crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure. Edward Gibbon, 1737-94, Memoirs of My Life ch5
The accuracy of the group is far greater than the individual – we call this the wisdom of the crowd. (Maths & Crowd & Group) Professor Marcus du Sautoy, The Code III: Prediction, BBC 2011
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups. George Carlin