Delusions of Crowds

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it. -Benjamin Franklin


Throughout history there have been delusions of crowds. Get rich schemes like Tulip Mania have always fired the emotions of the crowd.

The Crusades were another delusion. Peasants had only the Priest to guide them in medieval Europe. A shooting star, or terrible storm, would signal to the peasants the end was near. The crowds wanted to go to the Holy Land before the world came to an end. Despite the crowd's enthusiasm and suffering on their pilgrimages, the world did not end, and there was no Rapture.

The Global Warming crowd is now in the same frenzy as the crusaders and the tulip buyers. The global warming crowd sees the end of the world unless something drastic is done. Millions follow the global warming crowd hysteria just like the European peasants following Peter the Hermit to Jerusalem. The millions who are afraid the earth is going to die never question the science or the purpose of the predictions.

The researchers who tell us the earth is warming receive their funds from private donations to tax free organizations or funds from federal grants. There are 75 private organizations that are concerned only about Global Warming. It is in their best interest to keep the crowd frightened so the donations will continue. Without the donations the staff would have to find other work.

Those researchers who receive federal grants for research would lose their funding if they said there is no threat of global warming. They scare the crowd to insure the grants continue so the researchers can travel to exotic places and play outdoors taking the temperature.

Though the Crusades started a thousand years ago, there is a crowd of believers today who still believe Jesus Christ will return to the earth and save good people from the horrors and evil of man and earth's natural disasters. The greater the dangers of the day the greater need for Jesus to return. I asked one believer if man could have peace on earth without Jesus returning and he said "No, Jesus must return to bring peace and salvation to the people on earth." This man perpetuates war and conflict so to have an excuse to believe Jesus' returning is necessary. He needs danger and conflict to have sins that will be atoned for.

Crowds used to be local; tribes and villages. Then the printing press was invented. Tribes began to trade with other tribes. Oceans were crossed. Religions became more numerous. Races intermarried. Radio, newspapers, trains, airplanes, TV, and the internet created different crowds. Political crowds emerged. Ideas spread like a contagious virus.

Now we have crowds of democrats and crowds of republicans. There are crowds of environmentalist, abortion rights, anti-abortion, animal rights, universal health care crowds, and many others. All of these crowds suffer from what Charles Mackay described in his "Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" http://www.econlib.org/library/mackay/macExContents.html

Individuals go crazy at a lower rate than crowds. A crowd goes crazy quicker than an individual and comes to its senses slowly, one person at a time. Some crowds erupt into violence that ends in a few hours. Other crowd behavior lasts for thousands of years, like Christianity and Islam. These crowds will also come to their senses when their delusions are destroyed. It may take another thousand years, but, there are many more atheists now than there were a thousand years ago. The crowds of Christianity and Islam are coming to their senses, slowly, one at a time.

Bilbo Baggins