Gustave Le Bon, despite outdated views, offers crucial insights into human behavior and crowd psychology. His observations highlight the pitfalls of collective emotion over reason, relevant in today’s context of technological change and societal fragmentation. Modern challenges like declining literacy and critical thinking present risks, echoing Le Bon’s warnings about crowd manipulation and authoritarianism.

Gustave Le Bon, as this revealing quote demonstrates, was very much a man of his time:

“It will be remarked that among the special characteristics of crowds there are several—such as impulsiveness, irritability, incapacity to reason, the absence of judgment and of the critical spirit, the exaggeration of the sentiments, and others besides—which are almost always observed in beings belonging to inferior forms of evolution—in women, savages, and children, for instance.”

(Le Bon, Gustave. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, p. 16. Kindle Edition.)

Looking at the above quote, it is easy to see Le Bon was a product of a different age from ours. Yet, laying aside those ideas we know to be psychologically and sociologically inaccurate, does he have something to say for us today? I am convinced he does.

His age had its own interpretation of the scholastic work newly produced within academia, but once a concept—like the internet, human rights, or even the 40-hour work week—becomes the “basement” of our reality, our brains struggle to simulate a world without it. This was certainly true for Le Bon and his biases. We suffer from a kind of collective amnesia regarding the fictions of the past without seeing the fictions of our own contemporary age.

The real value of Le Bon lies not in critiquing his outdated social views, but in extracting the enduring insights from his critique of the culture and age he inhabited—insights from which we might still benefit.

Despite his prejudices, shaped by the scientific interpretations of his day, Le Bon possessed a keen understanding of the underlying forces that shape human events. As he wrote:

“The memorable events of history are the visible effects of the invisible changes of human thought. The reason these great events are so rare is that there is nothing so stable in a race as the inherited groundwork of its thoughts.”

(Le Bon, Gustave. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, p. 4. Kindle Edition.)

There is a collective power exerted by the unconscious mind, along with collective thoughts and the enduring influences of culture. He recognized that history is not simply a series of random events, but a reflection of deeper, often unseen, shifts in human consciousness.

Today, we face a world grappling with rapid technological change, increasing social fragmentation, and a growing sense of uncertainty. To understand these challenges, we can, like Le Bon, wrestle with what might be defining the culture we exist within.

We Are All Products of Our Time

I am undeniably a product of the age I live in, carrying both the strengths and weaknesses, the insights and the inherent biases, of my generation. I belong to one of the first generations to become familiar with home computing, witnessing the dawn of the digital age. I’ve seen the space race unfold, experienced the seismic shock of 9/11, lived through the global upheaval of COVID-19, and observed the resurgence of conventional warfare. Financial collapses in the 1980s and beyond have left their mark, fostering a deep-seated cynicism toward structures and a healthy skepticism toward political and specialist opinions—opinions that, in my contemporary understanding, often seem no more reliable than educated guesses.

This personal lens, shaped by decades of observing societal shifts, informs my approach to Le Bon and my leaning toward his warnings about the crowd.

For Le Bon, two historical cataclysms stand out as particularly formative: the French Revolution and, perhaps even more viscerally, the Paris Commune.

Le Bon’s Crucible: Revolution and the Commune

The French Revolution (1789–1799), though preceding Le Bon’s birth, cast a long shadow over 19th-century French society and intellectual thought. Its legacy of radical upheaval, mass mobilization, the Reign of Terror, and the overthrow of established order deeply concerned many thinkers of his time. Le Bon saw in the Revolution a terrifying demonstration of how collective passions could overwhelm reason, leading to widespread destruction and instability.

However, it was the Paris Commune of 1871 that truly served as a crucible for his theories. He was a young man in his late twenties when, in the wake of France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the citizens of Paris rose up, established a radical socialist government, and held the city for two months. The Commune was marked by intense class conflict, revolutionary fervor, and ultimately brutal repression. For observers like Le Bon, it was a real-time spectacle of a city consumed by what he perceived as the irrational, destructive, and volatile forces of the crowd.

The Commune demonstrated how quickly established authority could crumble, how easily the masses could be swayed by demagoguery, and how swiftly a society could descend into chaos when individual reason was subsumed by collective emotion. The burning of public buildings, summary executions, and the scale of the uprising and its violent suppression shook him. This experience cemented his conviction that crowds were inherently unstable and dangerous entities, capable of immense destruction and resistant to rational control. It reinforced his belief in the fragility of civilization when confronted by the unbridled power of the collective.

Le Bon lived long enough to witness the unimaginable horrors of World War I. His entire intellectual life was thus a continuous observation of humanity’s capacity for both grand civilization and devastating collective self-destruction. The enduring strength of his work lies in his analysis of these outcomes: how easily contagion and charismatic figures can turn a once-stable cultural environment dystopian. It is a stark reminder of the fragility of progress—and one that offers critical insights into the dynamics we face today.

Le Bon offered a chillingly prescient warning:

“Certainly it is possible that the advent to power of the masses marks one of the last stages of Western civilisation, a complete return to those periods of confused anarchy which seem always destined to precede the birth of every new society.”

(The Crowd, p. 6)

He further asserted:

“When the structure of a civilisation is rotten, it is always the masses that bring about its downfall.”

(The Crowd, p. 6)

These words land hard as I consider our own time. From my reflections, I have three concerns I cannot ignore: the decline of literacy, the erosion of critical thinking, and the increasing fragmentation of our cultural landscape.

Cognitive Bias: The Blind Spot of Our Time

I approach this discussion not as a professional expert, but as one continuously concerned by what I observe. Like Le Bon, I am simply a product of my age. While I hold a degree in theology and have a strong interest and reading background in history, philosophy, and psychology, I come to this as a participant in an age that, to me, seems to be in decline.

If Le Bon is right that unseen shifts in thought shape history, then we must ask: what are the unseen shifts in ours?

As he noted: “The conscious life of the mind is of small importance in comparison with its unconscious life.” (The Crowd, p. 11)

Seeing our own age clearly—its worries and contaminants—requires deliberate effort. Like Alice in Wonderland, what lies behind the curtain may be far more concerning than the monsters we encounter, for it is in that hidden place that such monsters are created.

The Foundation Crumbles: Literacy, Critical Thinking, and the Rise of the Unexamined Self

The very foundations of our intellectual and cultural life are showing significant cracks. This concern first struck me years ago through reports on New Zealand’s education system. The most fundamental issue is the decline in literacy and critical thinking.

Contemporary data, alongside personal observations, reveal persistent weaknesses in foundational reading and analytical skills. These gaps affect young adults entering the workforce and undermine the capacity for reasoned thought, effective communication, and self-awareness. While New Zealand still performs above the OECD average in some areas, long-term trends and equity gaps are troubling.

Key indicators include:

• International Benchmarks (PISA for 15-year-olds): In PISA 2022, New Zealand’s average reading score was 501 points—above the OECD average of 476—yet this contributed to the country’s worst-ever overall PISA results amid a global post-COVID decline. Scores have fallen roughly 28 points since 2000, with a widening gap between high- and low-socioeconomic students.
• Primary School Literacy (PIRLS for Year 5 students): New Zealand’s mean reading score in PIRLS 2021 was 521, above the international centrepoint of 500. This was the country’s lowest score since 2001, with an increase in students at lower proficiency levels. Performance lagged behind several other English-speaking nations, though it remained ahead of the overall international average.
• National Assessments (NCEA Literacy and Numeracy Co-requisites): Provisional 2025 data shows that approximately 15,000 senior secondary students failed to meet the basic literacy and numeracy requirements. This equates to roughly 15% of Year 12 students and 9% of Year 13 students—disproportionately affecting those from low-income communities, Māori, and Pacific learners. These gaps signal challenges in functional literacy at senior levels.
• Adult Skills (PIAAC): New Zealand adults score close to the OECD average in literacy (260 points), with 26% at Level 1 or below. However, younger cohorts (16–24) show lower average literacy and numeracy scores than the overall adult population, raising concerns about future workforce readiness.

This pervasive weakness in reading comprehension and critical thinking habits creates a deeper cognitive vulnerability. It is not merely an academic shortfall; it limits engagement with complex ideas, questioning of dominant narratives, or formation of independent judgments.

Le Bon observed that the actions of a crowd are “far more under the influence of the spinal cord than of the brain. In this respect a crowd is closely akin to quite primitive beings.” (The Crowd, p. 17)

Le Bon, influenced by early Darwinian ideas and prevailing notions of evolutionary and racial hierarchies common in his era, interpreted this primal, emotional impulse as a regression akin to the “spinal cord” overpowering reasoned thought from the “brain”—reducing crowd behavior to something closer to instinctual, unreflective primitiveness. While we no longer accept these racial and evolutionary assumptions, Le Bon’s core observation remains perceptive: a populace with weakened critical faculties is especially susceptible to manipulation, emotional contagion, and tribalistic dominance.

Wherever the tribe asserts itself over the individual through power and informed ignorance, there is a struggle to engage with complex ideas, question collectivized information, or form independent judgments. The crowd becomes fertile ground for simplistic narratives and emotional appeals, leading to societal fragmentation.

I hold the view that wisdom is directly linked to literacy, which enables positive individual development. From my experience as a former company director and IT manager, I have seen how deficiencies in language command and analytical skills lead to miscommunication, frustration, raw emotion, and a drift toward tribalism. In contrast, strong literacy, critical thinking, rhetorical skills, and mature self-awareness support better outcomes and self-control.

A Modern Challenge to the Crowd

If you are standing up for a cause but cannot clearly articulate and reference your reasoning, it may be time to assess the real drive or need being met. There is much good when a group acts knowingly, with nuance about meaning and outcomes. On the other hand, protesting can sometimes serve personal significance for those who feel powerless—especially when the ego, rather than the cause, is central. The risk grows when the crowd decides that the ends justify the means.

As Le Bon rightly pointed out:

“Given to exaggeration in its feelings, a crowd is only impressed by excessive sentiments. An orator wishing to move a crowd must make an abusive use of violent affirmations. To exaggerate, to affirm, to resort to repetitions, and never to attempt to prove anything by reasoning are methods of argument well known to speakers at public meetings.”

(The Crowd, p. 25)

If a person becomes merely the projection of the crowd’s will, they can easily be turned into a weapon against society—claiming a righteous cause while remaining ignorant of the real issues. The unintended consequences can be fatal, and a new monster leaps into existence like a Leviathan swallowing up all in its path.

How Real Are My Concerns?

Le Bon’s warning about tyrants exploiting crowd psychology became, in tragic irony, a toolkit for some of history’s most notorious leaders. Mussolini, Hitler, and Stalin each drew—directly or indirectly—on techniques of simplification, repetition, emotional appeal, and mass suggestion to bypass reason and consolidate power. What Le Bon intended as a caution against the dangers of unbridled collective emotion was repurposed to build totalitarian control, with devastating human cost. The crowd, when captured, can indeed become an all-consuming monster.

The only question I can ask of all of us is this: What crowd has captured your imagination — and is it really all you think it is? In an age of rapid technological amplification and unseen shifts in thought, pausing to examine our own emotional contagions may be the most important act of individual reason left to us.