Using the read text, complete ONLY ONE of the tasks on a separate sheet: 9.1, 9.2 or 9.3. Before writing an essay, write down the number of the selected task: 9.1, 9.2 or 9.3.
9.1 Write an essay-reasoning, revealing the meaning of the statement of the famous linguist Viktor Vladimirovich Vinogradov: "All means of language are expressive, you just need to skillfully use them." Justify your answer by giving two examples from the text you read. When giving examples, indicate the numbers of the required sentences or use citations. You can write a work in a scientific or journalistic style, revealing the topic on linguistic material. You can start the essay with the words of V.V. Vinogradov.
A work written without relying on the text read (not on this text) is not evaluated. If the essay is a paraphrase or a complete rewrite original text without any comments, then such work is evaluated by zero points. Write an essay carefully, legible handwriting.
9.2 Write an essay-reasoning. Explain how you understand the meaning of the phrase from the text: “In the crowd, they either don’t notice anyone, or everyone goes somewhere in a herd ...” Give two arguments from the read text in your essay that confirm your reasoning.
When giving examples, indicate the numbers of the required sentences or use citations.
The essay must be at least 70 words. A work written without relying on the text read (not on this text) is not evaluated. If the essay is a paraphrase or a complete rewrite of the source text without any comments, then such work is evaluated by zero points. Write an essay carefully, legible handwriting.
9.3 How do you understand the meaning of the word CROWD? Formulate and comment on your definition. Write an essay-reasoning on the topic: “What is a crowd”, taking the definition you gave as a thesis.
Arguing your thesis, give 2 examples-arguments that confirm your reasoning: give one example-argument from the text you read, and the second from your life experience.
The essay must be at least 70 words.
If the essay is a paraphrase or a complete rewrite of the source text without any comments, then such work is evaluated by zero points.
Write an essay carefully, legible handwriting.
(1) After the incident with teenagers who almost took away an invaluable camera from young cameramen, Olya said ruefully:
- (2) A crowd of villains ... (3) And you can’t hide from them anywhere - they are everywhere.
(4) Nilka, disturbed by something, said quietly and irreconcilably:
- (5) You can’t hide forever, but in our city you don’t need a crowd.
- (6) Where can you go, since she is, - muttered Boris.
- (7) I’m not talking about the city in general, but about which it’s completely ours. (8) The one that we ... are doing ... - Nilka meant that fabulous city that they tried to create in their film.
(9) But on this Nilka did not end the conversation about the crowd. (10) Apparently, something caught him, opened up an old wound. (11) He spoke with a painful note, as if touching a bad tooth with his tongue:
- (12) In the crowd, they either don’t notice anyone, or everyone goes somewhere in a herd ... (13) Dad says that this is a crowd syndrome; He told me this after one incident ...
- (14) What? Fedya asked. (15) For some reason, I felt sorry for Nilka.
- (16) It's a shame to remember ...
- (17) Well, Neil, don’t remember then, - Olya said accommodatingly.
- (18) No, I'll tell you. (19) Because ... it will become easier for me ... (20) It was when I was still living in an old house, which is on Turgenev Street ...
(21) And while they were wandering like this, depressed, Nilka told about what happened two years ago.
(22) Next to their five-story building stretched the old quarter, and there, in a rickety house, an old man lived. (23) His relatives either died or dispersed, so he alone managed as best he could. (24) He lived on a pension, he didn’t dig a garden: you see, there was no strength and desire. (25) But one day - whether it was a memory of childhood, or just an eccentricity - he began to build a toy city among the abandoned beds. (26) From clay, from plaster, from shards and glass fragments. (27) He worked every day: he riveted patterned lattices from wire, sculpted and dried bricks in the sun, built houses and fortress walls from them ...
(28) Apparently, he, this old man, was talented and understood something in architecture. (29) City - with fancy buildings, with knight's castle in the middle, with bridges across the ravine - it grew in an abandoned garden, like a small miracle. (30) At first, people laughed, then they began to stand at the low hedge for a long time, they looked already seriously, admiring this man-made beauty,
there were also helpers from the guys. (31) They laid out the sparkling pavement with tin bottle caps, collected colored glass for mosaics, cut pieces for tiles from red plastic ...
(32) And he didn’t know Nilka, he didn’t understand where the “conspiracy” came from among the local boys. (33) Including those who used to help the old man during the day. (34) And it is completely incomprehensible why Nilka ended up in this conspiracy.
- (35) They came to me at dusk, called. (36) They say, "a covert operation" to avenge someone. (37) They say that this old man offended one of the guys, he didn’t let him into the yard ... (38) Everyone gathered, secretly, like scouts. (39) Interesting ... (40) They took the lanterns from somewhere ... (41) They crept up to the garden, turned on the lanterns - and let's go around the city with stones like bombs ...
(42) They are in a hurry, throwing, and I also started, as if something had happened to me, and then one tower fell from my stone. (43) You know, as if I'm on the head myself! (44) And then my eyes seemed to open, as if I were screaming: “(45) What are you doing, you bastards!” (46) Roared - and home ... (47) Dad jumped out, and there was no one there. (48) And half of the city is gone ... (49) Then dad kept asking me: “(50) Well, why did you go? (51) Why did you throw it? (52) You loved this city so much ... ”(53) And I just roar, because I don’t know myself. (54) That's when he talked about the crowd syndrome ...
- (55) And then the guys didn’t beat you? Fedya asked hesitantly. - (56) For giving out.
- (57) Nope ... (58) It would be better if they beat. (59) Otherwise, I couldn’t walk past that garden. (60) Past the ruins ... (61) Because as a traitor ...
- (62) You were small, - Olya tried to console him.
- (63) Well, yes, small. (64) Seven and a half!..
- (65) Didn’t the old man restore the city? Boris asked.
- (66) He was fixing something. (67) But somehow already reluctantly. (68) And that tower that I ... she remained ... (69) Then we left, and the old man, they say, soon died ... (70) Maybe because of this ... (71) And I'm still ashamed I burn that I was in this crowd of boys destroying wonderful city that acted like them...
According to V.P. Krapivin*)
* Vladislav Petrovich Krapivin (born in 1938) - Soviet and Russian children's writer, author of books about children and for children. Books by Vladislav Krapivin were repeatedly reprinted in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Germany, Japan, Hungary, translated into English, Spanish, Persian and other languages.
Which answer option contains the information needed to substantiate the answer to the question: “Why did Neil decide to tell the guys the story of how he and the boys smashed the old man’s toy city?”
2) In the depths of his soul, Nilka was proud of his act, it seemed to him a manifestation of courage.
3) Neal told about his ugly act because he needed to ease his conscience.
4) Nilka wanted the city that they are now creating with the guys to be as beautiful as the old man's town.
Explanation.
The third answer option contains the information necessary to substantiate the answer to the question: “Why did Neil decide to tell the guys the story of how he and the boys broke the old man’s toy city?” In sentences (18) No, I will say. (19) Because ... it will become easier for me ... we get the necessary information.
Answer: 3.
Answer: 3
Explanation.
15.1 The perception of others depends on how a person speaks: what impression he will make, how his words will be perceived, whether he will achieve the pursued goals. One of the means of attractiveness of the interlocutor is the expressiveness of his speech, which is impossible without mastering the norms of speech culture.
In the text of Vladislav Krapivin there are dialogues by which you can see how skillfully their authors are able to use the word to convey what they would like to say. For example, in sentence 12 (In the crowd, they either don’t notice anyone, or they all go somewhere in a herd ...) The Nilka use the jargon “rod”, which turns out to be very appropriate in defining the actions of the crowd: the crowd is an element, an unpredictable, destructive force.
When Nilka's speech is agitated, his sentences are short, with ellipsis at the end of such sentences. The ellipsis is used as a sign of reticence, reflections that remain behind the text. An example is sentences 57, 60, 61.
Thus, the statements of the outstanding linguist V.V. Vinogradova: "All means of language are expressive, you just need to skillfully use them."
15.2 For the hero of the story, Vladislav Krapivin, memories of a shameful act committed by him under the influence of the crowd remain very painful. The crowd is an element, an unpredictable, destructive force. This is what the phrase is about: “In the crowd, they either don’t notice anyone, or they all go somewhere in a herd ...”
It happens that in life we do things for which we are then ashamed all our lives. It is about such an act that the hero of the text by V. Krapivina recalls. Years later, Nilka could not forget the shameful cowardice when he succumbed to the crowd syndrome. He doesn’t even remember why he began to sack the city: “They are in a hurry, throwing, and I also started, as if something had happened to me, and then one tower fell from my stone” (sentence 42).
When the boy came to his senses, he challenged the crowd: “And then my eyes seemed to open, I screamed: “What are you doing, you bastards!” Roared - and home ... ”(sentences 44-46). Of course, repentance came, but it was too late: the fabulous city was destroyed.
The story told by the hero is very topical. We encounter such conciliation in the crowd very often. It is very difficult to resist the decision of the crowd and is subject only to strong man.
15.3 The theme of the relationship between the individual and the crowd is a traditional theme for Russian literature. What do we mean by the word "crowd"? In my opinion, the crowd is a terrible word - it immediately appears as a chaotic group of people, obsessed with some idea, not thinking much about the meaning of this idea, not capable of analysis, destroying, sowing evil in its path.
This is exactly how the crowd appears in an excerpt from the work of Vladislav Krapivin. The frantic flock of boys, who carried out a conspiracy against the old man, destroyed not only the city he built, destroyed the meaning of his life, destroyed the soul of a boy who could not resist the crowd and the destructive principle in himself.
The story told by the hero is very topical. We encounter such conciliation in the crowd very often. It is very difficult to resist the decision of the crowd and is subject only to a strong person. From your own weakness in the company of teenagers, you can become a drug addict, an alcoholic, a criminal. This happens because a person does not have the strength to say “no”, at this moment only one thought drives him: to be like everyone else, not to stand out, not to lose the support of others. But who is worse off? I would like to appeal to my peers: to have your own opinion is right, good and cool; if your opinion is despised by others, think about whether you are with those people.
Relevance: Corresponds to the demo version of the current year
What is a crowd? What effect does it have on a person? It is this problem that is raised in the text of VN Kazakov.
In this text, the author notes that "the man of the crowd is no longer a man." V.N. Kazakov emphasizes that, having started its movement, the crowd flies in a terrible black cloud, and the rivers turn red from the innocent blood of innocent people.
In works from Russian literature there are examples that show the power of the crowd over a person. Grigory Pechorin- the protagonist novel by M.Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time", from birth he tried to please the "crowd". Gregory was modest - he was accused of slyness, and he became secretive; he was ready to love the world - no one understood him, and Pechorin learned to hate.
And in the work of Boris Vasilyev "Satisfy my sorrows" describes the destructive property of the crowd. The main character of this novel is the girl Nadia, who wanted to become a journalist. crush, in which the main thing was not to fall, because the fall meant death.
I believe that V.N. Kazakov is absolutely right. Even in our time, a person cannot always resist the crowd. Examples from the literature prove the unfavorable influence of the crowd on a person. A crowd is a collection of people who obey circumstances and cannot resist other people. But a person must remain a "person" who does not imitate the animal herd.
Updated: 2017-04-12
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The word "instinct" has two meanings. The first is the innate ability to carry out the necessary actions in an unusual situation, for example, the instinct of self-preservation, the second is internal feelings, for example, to understand something by instinct native person. You can never obey the spontaneous actions of the crowd, instincts. Instinct is sometimes really needed by a person, but they must be reasonably guided.
The crowd is a great force that can subdue the will of a person, lead, overcome obstacles and prohibitions. Each of us is well aware of the cases of people dying in spontaneous crowds. How can you be saved from this disaster?
There are times when a crowd is created to achieve some common purpose. If, for example, workers see injustice on the part of the management, a violation of their own rights, they go on strike. Where the voice of one person is not heard, a rich-voiced wall will help achieve the goal, the position of which cannot be ignored in solving important issues. Via mass events often achieve justice, solve important political issues.
The crowd can form during musical, entertainment events, holidays, concerts. Such a crowd cannot be called harmful either. People gather together who are united by one goal: attraction to interesting action, the desire for outdoor activities. But even with such peaceful events, unforeseen situations can occur. Among the visitors there may be one person or a group of people in a state of intoxication who are able to start a fight or start hooligan actions, a fire may suddenly break out or some other disaster may occur.
It is in such cases that the actions of the crowd become unpredictable. People are driven by panic, they are not always able to adequately assess the situation, the consequences of their actions can be terrible. If a fight breaks out, others are often involuntarily involved in it, and then a person who had nothing to do with the quarrel becomes a participant in it. When you have to suddenly leave the premises (due to a fire or other accident), everyone immediately forgets to fulfill those simple steps which we are taught from childhood, namely: during a mass movement, remain calm, do not push, move in an organized way in the direction of the exit.
We are all familiar with training fire safety or civil defense, which are held annually at a school or higher educational institution. The students, accompanied by teachers and administration, cope with the task "excellently". AT real life we see a crowd of people, moving quickly and at random, with a cry and horror pushing the people around. Well, if these people around have enough strength to stay on their feet. Otherwise - injuries, injuries, even death of people!
Fortunately, I have not had to get into such terrible situations, but I have repeatedly thought about how I would behave if an unexpected situation arose. I remember well what I was taught at school. I am sure that in any case I will not panic and will try to first assess the situation and make a "sober" decision.
The concept of "crowd" has a lot of meanings. The instinct of the crowd leads the youth at the disco, during a trip to nature, just for a walk. "Everyone smoked, and I tried" - we often hear such statements. Very rarely a person really understands why she does it, "like everyone else." And if "everyone" also drank or tried drugs? You will have to fight against alcohol or drug addiction on your own, without the help of the crowd.
It is often difficult to go against the crowd. Comrades begin to poison you, they consider you a "black sheep". But if you confidently adhere to your principles and do not pay attention to the "shaky" path, the attitude gradually changes: they begin to reckon with you, begin to respect you as a person. Therefore, the protest against the instinct of the crowd can be useful.
The "crowd instinct" does not at all refer to the vital instincts of a person; he should rely on it in order to survive, in order to remain a man.
The concept of the crowd. The mechanism of its formation and composition
The social life of people is molded into a great variety of the most diverse forms. Some of them are ordinary and familiar. Others are seriously different from what is considered to be the daily norm. There are forms of behavior that are purely individualized, entirely or largely dependent on the will, desires or needs of the individual. But there are also those in which the manifestations of the will, desires and needs of an individual are seriously limited by the direct or indirect influence of other people.
People and the individual, without even experiencing psychic pressure from others, but only perceiving the behavior of these others, become infected with their behavior, obey and follow it. Of course, insubordination is also possible, but the individual, as a rule, rationally explains it to himself. Without this clarification, "insubordination" inevitably causes an internal anxiety in the individual, often supplemented by the work of the imagination regarding the possibly low assessment of one's personality by others.
The idea of a crowd is usually born from personal experience of people. Almost everyone has either been in the crowd or seen its behavior from the outside. Sometimes, succumbing to simple human curiosity, people join a group that considers and discusses some event. Growing in numbers, becoming infected general mood and interest, people gradually turn into a discordant, unorganized cluster, or crowd.
Crowd - an unstructured accumulation of people, devoid of a clearly perceived commonality of goals, but mutually related by similarity emotional state and general focus.
The term "crowd" has entered social psychology during the period of powerful revolutionary upsurge of the masses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Psychologists at that time understood the mob mainly as poorly organized protests of the working people against the exploiters.
A very figurative definition of the crowd was given by G. Lebon: "The crowd is like leaves raised by a hurricane and carried in different directions, and then falling to the ground."
When combining small groups, consisting of individuals who are indignant about a certain reason, into a sufficiently large group, the likelihood of spontaneous behavior increases sharply. The latter can be aimed at expressing people's feelings, assessments and opinions, or at changing the situation through action. Very often the crowd turns out to be the subject of such spontaneous behavior.
The crowd as the subject of mass forms of non-collective narration often becomes:
- the public, which is understood as a large group of people arising on the basis of common interests, often without any organization, but necessarily in a situation that affects common interests and allows for rational discussion;
- contact, outwardly unorganized community, acting extremely emotionally and unanimously;
- a set of individuals who make up a large amorphous group and for the most part do not have direct contacts with each other, but are connected by some common more or less permanent interest. These are mass hobbies, mass hysteria, mass migrations, mass patriotic or pseudo-patriotic frenzy.
In mass forms of non-collective behavior, unconscious processes play an important role. On the basis of emotional excitement, spontaneous actions arise in connection with some impressive events that affect the main values of people in the course of, for example, their struggle for their interests and rights. Such were the numerous "copper" or "salt" riots of the urban and peasant squalor in the Russian Middle Ages or the rebellious performances of the English "Luddists", expressed in the destruction of machines, devoid of a clear ideological context and clearly conscious goals of the actions taken.
The main mechanisms for the formation of the crowd and the development of its specific qualities are circular reaction(growing mutually directed emotional contagion), as well as rumors.
Even the main stages of crowd formation are defined.
Crowd core formation. The emergence of a crowd rarely goes beyond the causal relationships of social phenomena, the awareness of which is far from always spontaneous. Despite the fact that one of the essential features of the crowd is the random composition of the people who form it, often the formation of the crowd begins with a certain core, which is the instigators.
The initial core of the crowd can take shape under the influence of rationalistic considerations and set itself completely certain goals. But in the future, the core grows like an avalanche and spontaneously. The crowd is growing, absorbing people who, it would seem, had nothing in common with each other before. Spontaneously, a crowd is formed as a result of some incident that attracts the attention of people and gives rise to interest in them (more precisely, at the very beginning - curiosity). Being agitated by this event, the individual who has joined those already gathered is ready to lose some of his usual self-control and receive exciting information from the object of interest. A circular reaction begins, prompting the audience to exhibit similar emotions and satisfy new emotional needs through psychic interaction.
The circular reaction constitutes the first stage in the formation and functioning of the crowd.
whirling process. The second stage begins at the same time as the whirling process, during which the senses become even more aggravated and there is a readiness to respond to information coming from those present. The internal swirling on the basis of the ongoing circular reaction is growing. And the excitement grows. People are predisposed not only to joint, but also to immediate action.
The emergence of a new common object of attention. The whirling process prepares the third stage of crowd formation. This stage is the emergence of a new common object of attention, on which the impulses, feelings and imagination of people are focused. If initially the general object of interest was an exciting event that gathered people around it, then at this stage the image created in the process of whirling in the conversations of the crowd participants becomes a new object of attention. This image is the result of the creativity of the participants themselves. It is shared by all, gives individuals a common orientation and acts as an object of joint behavior. The appearance of such an imaginary object becomes a factor that unites the crowd into a single whole.
Activating individuals through arousal. Final stage in the formation of the crowd is the activation of individuals by additional stimulation through the excitation of impulses corresponding to an imaginary object. Such (based on suggestion) stimulation occurs most often as a result of the leadership of the leader. It encourages the individuals that make up the crowd to take concrete, often aggressive, actions. Among those gathered, instigators usually stand out, who deploy vigorous activity in the crowd and gradually direct its behavior. These may be politically and mentally immature and extremist-minded individuals. Thus, the composition of the crowd is clearly defined.
The core of the crowd, or the instigators, are the subjects whose task is to form the crowd and use its destructive energy for the set goals.
Crowd members are subjects who have joined it as a result of identifying their value orientations with the direction of the crowd's actions. They are not instigators, but they find themselves in the sphere of influence of the crowd and actively participate in its actions. Of particular danger are aggressive individuals who join the crowd solely because of the opportunity that has arisen to release their neurotic, often sadistic, inclinations.
In the midst of the participants of the crowd there are also honestly mistaken ones. These subjects join the crowd due to an erroneous perception of the situation, they are driven, for example, by a falsely understood principle of justice.
The crowd joins the crowd. They don't show much activity. They are attracted to excess as an exciting spectacle that diversifies their boring, dreary existence.
Highly suggestible people who succumb to the general contagious mood find their place in the crowd. They surrender without resistance to the power of natural phenomena.
Crowd members are also just curious, watching from the sidelines. They do not interfere in the course of events, but their presence increases the mass character and enhances the influence of the elements of the crowd on the behavior of its participants.
2 Crowd classification
Like any other social phenomenon, the crowd can be classified in various ways. If we take such a feature as controllability as the basis for the classification, then we can distinguish the following types of crowds.
spontaneous crowd. It is formed and manifested without any organizing principle on the part of a particular individual.
driven crowd. It is formed and manifested under the influence, influence from the very beginning or subsequently of a specific individual who is its leader in this crowd.
Organized crowd. This variety is introduced by G. Lebon, considering as a crowd both a collection of individuals who have embarked on the path of organization, and an organized crowd. It can be said that he sometimes makes no difference between an organized crowd and an unorganized one. Although it is difficult to agree with this approach. If some community of people is organized, therefore, it has structures of control and subordination. This is no longer a crowd, but a formation. Even a squad of soldiers, as long as there is a commander in it, is no longer a crowd.
If we take the nature of the behavior of people in it as the basis for classifying the crowd, then we can distinguish several of its types and subtypes.
occasional crowd. It is formed on the basis of curiosity about an unexpected incident (traffic accident, fire, fight, etc.).
Conventional crowd. It is formed on the basis of interest in some pre-announced mass entertainment, spectacle or other socially significant specific occasion. Ready only temporarily to follow rather diffuse norms of behavior.
expressive crowd. Formed - like a conventional crowd. It jointly expresses a general attitude towards an event (joy, enthusiasm, indignation, protest, etc.)
Ecstatic crowd. Represents an extreme form of expressive crowd. It is characterized by a state of general ecstasy based on mutual, rhythmically growing infection (mass religious rituals, carnivals, rock concerts, etc.).
acting crowd. Formed - like conventional; performs actions on a specific object. The current crowd includes the following subspecies.
- Aggressive crowd. United by blind hatred for a specific object (any religious or political movement, structure). Usually accompanied by beatings, pogroms, arson, etc.
- panic crowd. Spontaneously escaping from a real or imagined source of danger.
- Grassroots crowd. Enters into an unordered direct conflict for the possession of any values. It is provoked by the authorities, ignoring the vital interests of citizens or encroaching on them (taking by storm places in outgoing transport, rush grab products in trade enterprises, destroying food warehouses, depositing financial (for example, banking) institutions, manifests itself in small quantities in places of major disasters with significant human victims, etc.).
4. Rebel crowd. It is formed on the basis of general just indignation at the actions of the authorities. The timely introduction of an organizing principle into it is capable of elevating spontaneous mass action to a conscious act of political struggle.
G. Lebon distinguishes types of crowds on the basis of homogeneity:
- heterogeneous;
- anonymous (street, for example);
- personified (parliamentary assembly);
- uniform:
- sects;
- castes;
- classes.
Modern ideas on the typology of the crowd are somewhat different from the views of G. Lebon. The organized crowd has already been discussed above. It is also difficult to consider as a crowd a personified meeting of people such as a production meeting, a parliamentary meeting, a jury (G. Lebon refers these formations to the category of “crowd”), which can only potentially turn into a crowd, but initially they are not. Classes are also difficult to attribute to the category of crowds - they have already been discussed. Still, the main system-forming feature of the crowd is its spontaneity.
3 Psychological properties of the crowd
Social psychologists note a number of psychological characteristics of the crowd. They are common to all psychological structure this education and are manifested in various areas:
- cognitive;
- emotional-volitional;
- temperamental;
- moral.
In the cognitive sphere, the crowd expresses various oddities of its psychology.
Inability to be aware. Important psychological characteristics of the crowd are its unconsciousness, instinctiveness and impulsiveness. If even one person is rather weakly amenable to the messages of the mind, and therefore most of the actions in life are done thanks to emotional, sometimes completely blind, impulses, then the human crowd lives exclusively by feeling, logic is contrary to it. An uncontrollable herd instinct comes into play, especially when the situation is extreme, when there is no leader and no one is shouting out restraining commands. The heterogeneous in each of the individuals - a particle of the crowd - is buried in the homogeneous, and unconscious qualities take over. General qualities of character, controlled by the unconscious, join together in a crowd. An isolated individual has the ability to suppress unconscious reflexes, while a crowd does not have this ability.
Features of the imagination. The crowd has a highly developed capacity for imagination. The crowd is very receptive to impressions. Images that strike the imagination of the crowd are always simple and clear. The images evoked in the mind of the crowd by someone, the idea of some event or case, in their liveliness, are almost equal to real images. It is not the facts themselves that strike the imagination of the crowd, but the way they are presented to it.
Another very important effect of the crowd is collective hallucinations. In the imagination of people gathered in a crowd, events are distorted.
Features of thinking. The crowd thinks in images, and the image evoked in its imagination, in turn, evokes others that have no logical connection with the first. The crowd does not separate the subjective from the objective. She regards as real images that are conjured up in her mind and often have only a very distant connection with the fact she observes. The crowd, capable of thinking only in images, is receptive only to images.
The crowd does not reason or think. It accepts or rejects whole ideas. She does not tolerate any disputes or contradictions. The reasoning of the crowd is based on associations, but they are connected with each other only by seeming analogy and consistency. The crowd is able to perceive only those ideas that are simplified to the limit. The judgments of the crowd are always imposed on it and never the result of an exhaustive discussion.
The crowd never seeks the truth. She turns away from the obvious, which she does not like, and prefers to worship delusions and illusions, if only they seduce her.
For a crowd incapable of reflection or reasoning, there is nothing improbable, but the improbable is what strikes most of all.
There is no premeditation in the crowd. She can consistently experience and go through the whole gamut of conflicting feelings, but she will always be under the influence of the excitations of the moment. The association of heterogeneous ideas that have only an apparent relation to each other, and the immediate generalization of particular cases - these are the characteristic features of the reasoning of the crowd. The crowd is constantly under the influence of illusions. Some important features of crowd thinking should be emphasized.
categorical. Feeling no doubt about what is truth and what is error, the crowd expresses the same authority in their judgments as intolerance.
Conservatism. Being fundamentally extremely conservative, the crowd has a deep aversion to all innovation and an unbounded reverence for tradition.
Suggestibility. Freud put forward a very productive idea for describing the phenomenon of the crowd. He viewed the crowd as a human mass under hypnosis. The most dangerous and most essential thing in crowd psychology is its susceptibility to suggestion.
Any opinion, idea or belief inspired by the crowd, it accepts or rejects entirely and refers to them either as absolute truths or as absolute errors.
In all cases, the source of suggestion in the crowd is an illusion born in one individual due to more or less vague memories. The evoked representation becomes the nucleus for further crystallization that fills the entire area of the mind and paralyzes all critical abilities.
It is very easy to inspire the crowd, for example, with a feeling of adoration, forcing them to find happiness in fanaticism, submission and readiness to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their idol.
No matter how neutral the crowd, it is still in a state of expectant attention, which facilitates any suggestion. The birth of legends that spread easily in the crowd is due to its gullibility. The same direction of feelings is determined by suggestion. As with all beings under the influence of suggestion, the idea that has taken possession of the mind seeks to express itself in action. Impossible for the crowd does not exist.
infectivity. Psychological contagion promotes education in the crowd special properties and determines their direction. Man tends to imitate. Opinions and beliefs are spread to the crowd by infection.
For emotional-volitional sphere of the crowd also characterized by numerous psychological features.
Emotionality. In the crowd there is such a socio-psychological phenomenon as emotional resonance. The people involved in the kurtosis are not just next door to each other. infect others and become infected by them. The term “resonance” is applied to such a phenomenon because the participants in the crowd, when exchanging emotional charges, gradually inflame the general mood to such an extent that an emotional explosion occurs, which is hardly controlled by consciousness. The onset of an emotional explosion is facilitated by certain psychological conditions behavior of the individual in the crowd.
high sensuality. The feelings and ideas of individuals who form a whole called a crowd take one and the same direction. A collective soul is born, which, however, is temporary. The crowd knows only simple and extreme feelings.
The various impulses to which the crowd obeys may, depending on the circumstances (namely, the nature of the excitements), be generous or evil, heroic or cowardly, but they are always so strong that no self-interest, even a sense of self-preservation, is able to suppress them.
In the crowd, the exaggeration of feelings is due to the fact that this feeling itself, spreading very quickly through suggestion and infection, causes universal approval, which contributes to a significant extent to the increase in its strength.
The strength of the feelings of the crowd is further increased due to the lack of responsibility. Confidence in impunity (all the more powerful, the larger the crowd) and the consciousness of significant (albeit temporary) power enable crowds of people to express such feelings and perform such actions that are simply unthinkable and impossible for an individual.
Whatever the feelings of the crowd, good or bad, their characteristic feature is one-sidedness. The one-sidedness and exaggeration of the feelings of the crowd lead to the fact that it knows neither doubt nor hesitation.
In its eternal struggle against reason, feeling has never been defeated.
Extremism. The forces of the crowd are aimed only at destruction. The instincts of destructive ferocity lie dormant in the depths of the soul of almost any individual. To succumb to these instincts is dangerous for an isolated individual, but being in an irresponsible crowd, where he is guaranteed impunity, he can freely follow the dictates of his instincts. In a crowd, the slightest squabble or slander on the part of any speaker immediately causes furious cries and violent curses. The normal state of a crowd that stumbles upon an obstacle is rage. A crowd never values its life during a riot.
The peculiarity of the crowd also lies in the specifics of the socio-psychological phenomena that determine the uniformity of the behavior of its participants. The fact is that the crowd is created mainly on the basis of opposing a given community to an object of discontent. What often makes a crowd a community is precisely what is "against them." It's certainly not a blind hatred for anything people don't identify with. Nevertheless, in a crowd, the opposition between “we” and “they” reaches a socially significant, often very dangerous value.
The crowd does not have a critical attitude towards itself and there is "narcissism" - "we" are impeccable, "they" are to blame for everything. "They" cast in the image of the enemy. The crowd considers only strength, and kindness does not touch it much; for the crowd, kindness is one of the forms of weakness.
Motivation. Self-interest is very rarely a powerful mover in a crowd, while in an individual it comes first. Although all the desires of the crowd are very passionate, they still do not last long, and the crowd is just as little able to show a persistent will, as well as prudence.
Irresponsibility. It often gives rise to the incredible cruelty of the aggressive crowd, incited by demagogues and provocateurs. Irresponsibility allows the crowd to trample on the weak and bow before the strong.
In the temperamental sphere, the psychological characteristics of the crowd are manifested in physical activity and diffuseness.
Physical activity. The desire to immediately turn inspired ideas into action - feature crowds.
diffuseness. The stimuli that act on the crowd that obeys them are very diverse - this explains its extreme variability. Above the firmly established beliefs of the crowd lies surface layer opinions, ideas and thoughts, constantly emerging and disappearing. The opinion of the crowd is fickle.
The absence of clear goals, the absence or diffuseness of the structure give rise to the most important property of the crowd - its easy convertibility from one species (or subspecies) to another. Such transformations often occur spontaneously. Knowledge of their typical patterns and mechanisms makes it possible to deliberately manipulate the behavior of the crowd for adventurous purposes or in order to deliberately prevent its especially dangerous actions.
AT moral sphere the psychological characteristics of the crowd are most often found in morality and religiosity.
Morality. The crowd can sometimes demonstrate very high morality, very lofty manifestations: selflessness, devotion, selflessness, self-sacrifice, a sense of justice, etc.
Religiosity. All the convictions of the crowd have the features of blind obedience, ferocious intolerance, the need for the most violent propaganda, which is inherent in religious feeling.
The crowd needs religion, since all beliefs are assimilated by it only if they are clothed in a religious shell that does not allow for challenge. The beliefs of the crowd always take a religious form.
4 Psychological characteristics of an individual in a crowd
In a crowd, an individual acquires a number of specific psychological characteristics that may be completely uncharacteristic of him if he is in an isolated state. These features have the most direct influence on his behavior in the crowd.
A person in a crowd is characterized by the following features.
Anonymity. An important feature of the self-perception of an individual in a crowd is the feeling of one's own anonymity. Lost in the "faceless mass", acting "like everyone else", a person ceases to be responsible for his own actions. Hence the cruelty that usually accompanies the actions of an aggressive mob. A member of the crowd appears in it, as it were, nameless. This creates a false sense of independence from organizational ties by which a person, wherever he is, is included in the work collective, family and other social communities.
instinctiveness. In the crowd, the individual gives himself over to such instincts that he never, being in other situations, gives free rein. This is facilitated by the anonymity and irresponsibility of the individual in the crowd. It reduces the ability to rationally process the perceived information. The capacity for observation and criticism, which exists in isolated individuals, completely disappears in the crowd.
unconsciousness. The conscious personality disappears in the crowd, dissolves. The predominance of the unconscious personality, the same direction of feelings and ideas, determined by suggestion, and the desire to immediately turn the suggested ideas into action is characteristic of an individual in a crowd.
The state of unity (association). In the crowd, the individual feels the power of human association, which affects him with its presence. The impact of this force is expressed either in the support and strengthening, or in the containment and suppression of individual human behavior. It is known that people in the crowd, feeling the mental pressure of those present, can do (or, on the contrary, not do) what they would never do (or, on the contrary, what they would certainly do) under other circumstances. For example, a person cannot, without prejudice to his own safety, help a victim when the crowd itself is hostile to this victim.
G. Le Bon notes the most striking fact observed in the crowd: whatever the individuals that make it up, their way of life, occupations, characters, mind, their one transformation into a crowd is enough for them to form a kind of collective soul that makes them to feel, think and act in a completely different way than each of them felt, thought and acted individually. There are ideas and feelings that arise and turn into actions only in the individuals who make up the crowd. The spiritualized crowd represents a temporary organism, merged from heterogeneous elements, united together for an instant.
Hypnotic trance state. The individual, having spent some time among acting crowd, falls into a state that resembles the state of a hypnotized subject. He is no longer aware of his actions. In him, as in a hypnotized person, some abilities disappear, while others reach an extreme degree of tension. Under the influence of the suggestion acquired in the crowd, the individual performs actions with an irresistible urgency, which, moreover, increases, since the influence of the suggestion, which is the same for all, is increased by the force of reciprocity.
Feeling of irresistible power. An individual in a crowd acquires the consciousness of an irresistible force, thanks to sheer numbers. This consciousness allows him to succumb to hidden instincts: in the crowd he is not inclined to curb these instincts precisely because the crowd is anonymous and does not answer for anything. The sense of responsibility that usually restrains individual individuals completely disappears in the crowd - here the concept of impossibility does not exist.
infectivity. In a crowd, every action is contagious to such an extent that the individual very easily sacrifices his personal interests to the interest of the crowd. Such behavior is contrary to human nature, and therefore a person is capable of it only when he is a particle of the crowd.
Amorphous. In the crowd, the individual features of people are completely erased, their originality and personal uniqueness disappear.
The psychic superstructure of each personality is lost and an amorphous homogeneity is revealed and comes to the surface. The behavior of the individual in the crowd is determined by the same attitudes, motives and mutual stimulation. Not noticing the shades, the individual in the crowd perceives all impressions as a whole and does not know any transitions.
Irresponsibility. In a crowd, a person completely loses a sense of responsibility, which is almost always a deterrent for an individual.
Social degradation. Becoming a particle of the crowd, a person, as it were, descends several steps lower in his development. In an isolated position - in ordinary life, he was most likely a cultured person, but in a crowd - this is a barbarian, i.e. being instinctive. In the crowd, the individual reveals a tendency to arbitrariness, violence, ferocity. A person in a crowd also suffers a decrease in intellectual activity.
The person of the crowd is also characterized by an increased emotional perception of everything that he sees and hears around him.
5 Crowd behavior
In the behavior of the crowd, both ideological influences are manifested, with the help of which certain actions are prepared, and changes in mental states that occur under the influence of any specific events or information about them. In the actions of the crowd, there is a docking and practical implementation of both ideological and socio-psychological influences, their interpenetration into the real behavior of people.
Joint feelings, will, moods turn out to be emotionally and ideologically colored and repeatedly strengthened.
The situation of mass hysteria serves as a backdrop against which the most tragic actions often unfold.
As already mentioned, one of the types of crowd behavior is panic. Panic is an emotional state that occurs as a result of either a lack of information about some frightening or incomprehensible situation, or its excessive excess and manifested in impulsive actions.
There are many factors that can cause panic. Their nature can be physiological, psychological and socio-psychological. Panic has been reported in Everyday life as a consequence of catastrophes and natural disasters. In panic, people are driven by unaccountable fear. They lose self-control, solidarity, rush about, do not see a way out of the situation.
The factors that have a particularly strong influence on the behavior of the crowd are as follows.
Superstition- a fixed false opinion that arises under the influence of fear experienced by a person. However, there may be a superstitious fear, the causes of which are not recognized. Many superstitions are associated with belief in something. They are subject to the most different people regardless of the level of education and culture. For the most part, superstition is based on fear, and it is magnified many times over in a crowd.
Illusion- a kind of false knowledge, entrenched in public opinion. It may be the result of a deception of the sense organ. In the same context we are talking about illusions related to the perception of social reality. A social illusion is a kind of ersatz-likeness of reality, created in the imagination of a person instead of genuine knowledge, which for some reason does not accept. Ultimately, the basis of the illusion is ignorance, which can produce the most unexpected and undesirable effects when manifested in a crowd.
prejudice- false knowledge that has turned into a belief, more precisely, into a prejudice. Prejudices are active, aggressive, assertive, and desperately resist true knowledge. This resistance is so blind that the crowd will not accept any arguments contrary to prejudice.
The psychological nature of prejudice lies in the fact that a person's memory captures not just an opinion (knowledge), it also retains the feeling, emotion, attitude that accompanies this knowledge. As a result, memory is highly selective. Facts and events that contradict a certain opinion are not always analyzed at the level of consciousness. And, of course, they are discarded under the influence of emotions, which usually overwhelm, overwhelm the crowd.
In cases where common stereotypes public opinion oversaturated with emotions, a mass psychosis may occur, during which people are able to commit the most reckless acts, cease to be aware of all the consequences of their actions.
The factors that determine the character of the opinions and beliefs of the crowd are of two kinds: immediate factors and distant factors. The immediate factors influencing the crowd act on the ground already prepared by distant factors - without this they would not have caused such crushing results, which often strike a raging crowd. Factors capable of impressing the crowd itself always appeal to their feelings, and not to reason.
6 Crowd leadership and crowd control mechanisms
Often the behavior of the crowd is determined by the presence or absence of a leader in it. A leader in a crowd can appear as a result of a spontaneous choice, and often as a result of self-appointment. The self-proclaimed leader usually adapts to the moods and feelings of the people of the crowd and can relatively easily induce its members to a certain type of behavior.
Any collection of individuals instinctively submits to the authority of the leader. The hero worshiped by the crowd is truly a god for it. In the soul of the crowd, it is not the desire for freedom that prevails, but the need for submission. The crowd is so eager to obey that it instinctively submits to the one who declares himself to be its master.
People in the crowd lose their will and instinctively turn to the one who retained it. Always ready to rise up against a weak government, the crowd grovels and bows before a strong government. Left to their own devices, the mob soon tire of their own disturbances and instinctively yearn for slavery.
The crowd is as intolerant as it is gullible with respect to authority. She respects strength and is little affected by kindness, which for her means only a kind of weakness. She demands strength and even violence from the hero, she wants to be possessed, she is suppressed. She yearns to fear her master. The power of the leaders is very despotic, but it is precisely this despotism that makes the crowd obey.
In a crowd of people, the leader is often only the leader, but, nevertheless, his role is significant. His will is the core around which opinions crystallize and unite. The role of leaders is mainly to create faith, no matter what. This explains their great influence on the crowd.
Most often, the leaders are mentally unbalanced people, half-mad, on the verge of insanity. No matter how absurd the idea they proclaim and defend, and the goal towards which they strive, their convictions cannot be shaken by any arguments of reason. There is another quality that usually distinguishes the leaders of the crowd: they do not belong to the number of thinkers - they are people of action.
The leader class is divided into two categories:
- people are energetic, with a strong, but appearing in them only for a short time will;
- people with a strong and at the same time persistent will (they are much less common).
One of the important factors that determine the leader's influence on the crowd is his charm. Charm is a kind of dominance of some idea or personality over the mind of an individual. It can be made up of opposite feelings, such as admiration and fear, and can be of two types: acquired and personal. Personal charm is different from artificial or acquired and does not depend on either title or power. It is based on personal superiority, on military glory, on religious fear, but not only on this. There are many different factors involved in the nature of charm, but one of the most important has always been and remains success.
Crowd control has a dual nature, because the crowd is almost always the object of control of two forces: on the one hand, it is led by leaders, leaders; on the other hand, the forces of protection of public order, power administrative structures are engaged in the crowd.
The possibilities of crowd control differ significantly depending on who aspires to be the leader in it - a demagogue or an intellectual. As they say in the East, he who wants to control the crowd tries to ride the tiger. However, managing individuals is much more difficult than managing a crowd.
The mechanisms of mass behavior can be used by a politician with any views and any moral level. In such cases, the crowd becomes a plaything in the hands of the leader. Usually, people who want to lead the crowd intuitively know how to influence it. They know that in order to convince the crowd, you must first understand what feelings inspire it, pretend to share them, and then conjure up in the imagination of the crowd images that attract it. The crowd should always be presented with any ideas in solid images, without indicating their origin.
A speaker who wants to captivate a crowd must abuse strong language. To exaggerate, to assert, to repeat, and never to try to prove anything by reasoning - these are the ways of argumentation for the crowd.
A statement only affects the crowd when it is repeated many times in the same expressions: in this case, the idea takes root in the minds so firmly that in the end it is perceived as a proven truth, and then crashes into the deepest regions of the unconscious. This technique is also quite successfully used by the leaders or leaders of the crowd.
A theoretical analysis of the mechanisms of crowd formation can, to some extent, help administrative bodies to control its behavior. They face a twofold task:
1) awaken the awareness of the crowd of individuals of their actions, return to them the lost sense of self-control and responsibility for their behavior;
2) prevent the formation of a crowd or disband an already formed crowd.
- reorientation of the attention of individuals who make up the crowd. As soon as the attention of people in the crowd is divided among several objects, separate groups immediately form, and the crowd, just united by the "image of the enemy" or readiness for joint action, immediately disintegrates. Features suppressed by the influence of the crowd personality structure individuals come to life - each person individually begins to regulate his behavior. The crowd ceases to be active, functioning and gradually dissipates;
- loudspeaker announcement that hidden cameras are filming crowd members;
- appeal to the crowd members with the name of specific surnames, names, patronymics, the most common in the area;
- the use of measures to capture and isolate the leaders of the crowd. If, by some chance, the leader disappears and is not immediately replaced by another, the crowd again becomes a mere gathering without any connection or stability. In this case, it is easier to carry out crowd dispersal measures.
In fact, it is very difficult to speak with the voice of reason with the crowd. She only accepts orders and promises.
7 Communication in the crowd
especially important role when a crowd appears, communication plays as a process of exchanging messages between people that are meaningful to them.
It is known that an individual becomes a participant in spontaneous behavior, either by being infected by the directly observed behavior of others, or by learning about it through the channels of official or unofficial communication. Some of these behaviors occur in conditions of acute information scarcity or ineffective messaging systems.
People are ready to succumb to the contagious action of others when this action is consistent with their ideas and beliefs. Obviously, mental infection would be impossible if people did not see the actions and deeds of others and did not hear about them. Mental contagion can generate feelings along the entire length of the emotional scale - both positive, enthusiastic, and negative, feelings of despondency and depression.
Where the individual is deprived of the opportunity to directly perceive the picture of the behavior of others, the mass media play an increasingly important role - newspapers, radio, television and cinema.
In any society, along with official communication systems, informal systems also operate in parallel. They touch at different points. For example, the content of informal communication - conversations, gossip, gossip, rumors - goes to the pages of printed publications or becomes the topic of conversations of a television commentator who contributes to their distribution. And, especially, important messages mass media communications are usually discussed among friends or family.
Therefore, in the mind of an individual there is often an interpretation shared by his neighbors, friends, relatives, fellow travelers on the road. The anger caused, say, by a message about the introduction of a new tax or an increase in prices, is easily understood by the interlocutor, because he experiences the same feelings ... This is the first condition for preparing mass behavior.
Literature:
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- Rutkevich A.M. The Man and the Crowd // Dialogue. - 1990. - No. 12.
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Social Psychology. Tutorial. Series "Higher education" Authors-compilers: R.I. Mokshantsev, A.V. Mokshantsev. Moscow-Novosibirsk, 2001