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And still, people are acting all surprised. Come on man. We're sitting around the classroom making the 'come on....you can do it' gesture waiting for them to have their epiphany.

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It's been a long wait. It requires the patience of a saint. I try to remember the quote that men go mad in herds, and come to their senses only one by one.

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Mackay I believe it was who said that?

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Yes, in Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Financial bubbles seem quite psychologically different than mass formations. But what I took away is that the most learned people, who can see the delusional nature of the bubble in the beginning, usually cannot resist getting swept up in it anyway. So what is has in common with mass formation is that intelligence and education seem to be no protection against a popular madness.

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Yeh, I'm trying to see the difference between Mackay, Hoffer, Lasch, Le Bon and the most recent Desmet in their assessment of what I'll group as 'hysteria'. Another interesting read is Luigi Barzini's 'The Italians'. It touches on this subject on a cultural level.

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The mention of this title sparked a moment of joyous memory of my college days. I had to read this for a history or a poly sci class. I will need to revisit. Without this mention I don't think this woud have been remembered and I certainly would not have thought of it in relation to current times.

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