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Philosophy

The Masses and Power

Elias Canetti

Cevvela
Philosophy

The Masses and Power

Elias Canetti · Ayrıntı Yayınları · 1960

7
Cevvela Score
7.3 (3.616 oy)
Reader Score

Summary

A massive sociological study examining how crowds form, the psychology of crowds, and how those in power—driven by the instinct for survival—manipulate and exploit the crowd.

Cevvela Comment

Canetti shatters the notion that power is, in essence, nothing more than a paranoid desire for "survival." The book shows how authority turns everyone around it into a victim just to stay afloat, and how it transforms this into an arrow of violence through orders. Cevvela’s conflict with that unjust system finds its full echo here. The leader’s power rises on the corpses of his subordinates. You come to realize how, while carrying out the orders given to you, you are actually killing your own sense of self—and that you are nothing more than an ordinary pawn in the leader’s paranoid game of survival.

Quotes from Cevvela

“İktidar sahibi, gücünü başkalarının ölümünden aldığı hazla kanıtlar.”
“Kitleye katılan insan, kendi yüzünü kaybeder; sadece kitlenin tek bir hücresi olur.”
“Emir vermek, emri alana atılmış görünmez bir oktur ve ruhunda her zaman bir yara bırakır.”
“Hayatta kalan liderin en büyük korkusu, etrafındakilerin bir gün kurban olmaktan vazgeçmesidir.”
“Korku, kitleyi bir arada tutan en güçlü ama en çürük çimentodur.”

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Two reflection prompts to note while reading — you do not need to answer them.

  1. After finishing, which line or scene stayed with you — and why?

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