The Revolt of the Masses
Posted on February 6, 2008 in Quotes
“The mass man loves gags. He is a spoilt child, demanding amusement, given to tantrums… His only commandment is Thou shalt expect convenience”
– Saul Bellow, in his introduction to José Ortega y Gasset’s book The Revolt of the Masses
“The mass man is obviously interested in automobiles, anesthetics, and all manner of sundries. And these things confirm his profound lack in interest itself. For all these things are mere products of civilization, and the passion he displays for them makes more crudely obvious his insensibility to the principles which made them possible”.
– José Ortega y Gasset’s, The Revolt of the Masses
Could you elaborate on this a bit further?
From what I remember of my Intro to Political Theory class, the premise is that due to the extreme specialization required in modern society, people will become extremely talented at one thing, but complete idiots at others. For example, the intense training required to be a scientist precludes a lot of humanities study. Yet since the specialist is convinced that as an intelligent person, he can weigh in on most anything. So the mass man is really the lowest-common denominator.
I think that quote about the automobile is talking about how everybody wants a car, but the amount of effort and specialization required to make an automobile is beyond anyone’s comprehension. People want a car, but they don’t understand the political, scientific, mechanical, and logistical structures that go into producing it.
What I think of are the strongly religious types who love technology, but hate science. It is that sort of disconnect where people can be highly knowledgeable and highly ignorant all at the same time.
The book (obviously) goes into much more detail, and it’s pretty interesting. I would recommend it, even if he is often heavy-handed. I think at the very least it makes you consider the issue of elitism versus populism in a new way.
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