last bread:
>>9463998
>>9463830
>>9463914
if only they could read or were properly educated
this one's been available for 120 years:
The Crowd
Gustave Le Bon
Book 1: The Mind of Crowds
Chapter 4: A Religious Shape Assumed by All the Convictions of Crowds
https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/Lebon/LeBon_1895/LeBon_1895_05.html
What is meant by the religious sentimentIt is independent of the worship of a divinityIts characteristicsThe strength of convictions assuming a religious shapeVarious examplesPopular gods have never disappearedNew forms under which they are revivedReligious forms of atheismImportance of these notions from the historical point of view-- The Reformation, Saint Bartholomew, the Terror, and all analogous events are the result of the religious sentiments of crowds and not of the will of isolated individuals.
We have shown that crowds do not reason, that they accept or reject ideas as a whole, that they tolerate neither discussion nor contradiction, and that the suggestions brought to bear on them invade the entire field of their understanding and tend at once to transform themselves into acts. We have shown that crowds suitably influenced are ready to sacrifice themselves for the ideal with which they have been inspired. We have also seen that they only entertain violent and extreme sentiments, that in their case sympathy quickly becomes adoration, and antipathy almost as soon as it is aroused is transformed into hatred. These general indications furnish us already with a presentiment of the nature of the convictions of crowds.