| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: are the object is not notably different from that accorded to
their predecessors. An understanding of the philosophy of
history is only to be got by a thorough appreciation of this
fundamental point of the psychology of crowds. The crowd demands
a god before everything else.
It must not be supposed that these are the superstitions of a
bygone age which reason has definitely banished. Sentiment has
never been vanquished in its eternal conflict with reason.
Crowds will hear no more of the words divinity and religion, in
whose name they were so long enslaved; but they have never
possessed so many fetishes as in the last hundred years, and the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: gravity of face and voice, "if that is so, let him take the Flying
Scud at fifty thousand, and joy go with her! I prefer the loss."
"Is that so, Jim? Are we dipped as bad as that?" I cried.
"We've put our hand farther out than we can pull it in again,
Loudon," he replied. "Why, man, that fifty thousand dollars,
before we get clear again, will cost us nearer seventy. Yes, it
figures up overhead to more than ten per cent a month; and I
could do no better, and there isn't the man breathing could have
done as well. It was a miracle, Loudon. I couldn't but admire
myself. O, if we had just the four months! And you know,
Loudon, it may still be done. With your energy and charm, if
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from 1984 by George Orwell: There were also memories of another kind. They stood out in his mind
disconnectedly, like pictures with blackness all round them.
He was in a cell which might have been either dark or light, because he
could see nothing except a pair of eyes. Near at hand some kind of
instrument was ticking slowly and regularly. The eyes grew larger and more
luminous. Suddenly he floated out of his seat, dived into the eyes, and
was swallowed up.
He was strapped into a chair surrounded by dials, under dazzling lights.
A man in a white coat was reading the dials. There was a tramp of heavy
boots outside. The door clanged open. The waxed-faced officer marched in,
followed by two guards.
1984 |
