The Mentality of Crowds and Hitler.

In Gustav LeBon’s article on the mentalities present in crowds, he mentions the difference between the ordinary sense of a crowd – a gathering of individuals – and the psychological point of view of a crowd – "an agglomeration of men [that] presents new characteristics very different from those of the individuals composing it" (Sévigny 2006).

There is an almost similar article as to what we have read however it has some more details at http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~lward/LeBon/LeBon_1895/LeBon_1895_00.html. There you actually take a look at the entire book that LeBon devoted to his study of crowds. It has been said that Hitler read this book and many of us can guess what he used LeBon’s ideas for.

This video is from a movie portraying Hitler’s rise to power. In this clip it is evident how individually the left side of the audience disagreed with what Hitler was saying, however, when something such as an anthem – which to many brings to mind images of flags, of heroism, and of cultural identity – was sung, they all began to sing along. Even though it took some time, especially for the chancellor, everyone sitting in the room began to come together over something that took place in a situation of which they did not individually agree with.



The individual will was lost. This was one of LeBon’s main ideas in his article. However, a crowd does not have to all be in one place to be effective. An example of that is shown through activists against sending our troops to Afghanistan all protesting throughout the major cities of Ontario this past Saturday (the 28th).

So the only concern that presented itself to me from LeBon’s extensive research on the mentalities of crowds is: What do we do now? Every single person is part of some crowd or the other. Whether it be against child labor with UNICEF or whether it be part of the Marxist ideology, it is inevitable that we are part of a group. So my question to you would be: Can humans survive without belonging to a group that shares a belief or ideology? Can you imagine yourself not being part of a group?

References:
LeBon, Gustav. “General Characteristics of Crowds – Psychological Law of Their Mental Utility." Introduction to Communication. Alexandre Sévigny. Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2006. 121-125.
“Gustav Le Bon: The Crowd: Preface.” 2004. The Mead Project, Brock University. 29 October 2006. < http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~lward/LeBon/LeBon_1895/LeBon_1895_00.html>.

Interactive Communication

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJKDBfdwabk

Watch this video closely, you may have seen it if you are in mmedia 1a03. It ties in directly with A.M. Turing's paper on Computing Machinery and Intelligence. Imagine if the technologies displayed in this video could be accessible to everyone...
Using our hands to communicate with a computer would be much less awkward than pushing buttons on a keyboard. We are almost at the level of technology required now, using things like palm pilots, and even using the 'mouse pad' on a laptop, but nothing that the majority of people have is direct interaction with a computer.
We'll just have to wait and see won't we...

Nonverbal Communication.

Happiness. Sadness. Anger. Disgust. Fear. Surprise. We see those six basic facial emotions so many times during one day that we forget that they are the basics of all of our humanly expressions. Chapter Five in Adler and Rodman's "Understanding Human Communication" discusses nonverbal communication in our daily lives. Another good source to view is the "What Are Emotions" page.
However, those six basic emotions are not the only things that make up nonverbal communication. When two people are standing having a conversation and one of them takes even half a step backwards we often realize that it is suddenly time to go - this is body language, and it is another type of nonverbal communication. The different types of communication, such as posture, eyes, and voice are evident in everyday conversations, however, one does not notice them because we are too focused on the actual content of what the person is saying - not realizing that by watching a persons nonverbal communication we can learn so much more.
Even though nonverbal communication is often essential to better interpret what a person is saying, it could often go unrecognized with people whom we have known for a long time. Rather than being able to better understand familiar faces, we begin to predict their very words before they say them - and we often do not even realize that we are robbing ourselves of trying to better understand their nonverbal communicative ways.

The issue of nonverbal communication seems to be of interest to many students, such as EA0653308 who has nicely summed it up.

Pictures
Top left: some of the common facial expressions; bottom right: my botox friends.

Adler, Rodman B. and George Rodman. Understanding Human Communication. New York: Oxfor UP, 2006.

"Original Work" in the 20th Century.

Looking at AM Turing's essay on "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" a very interesting point comes up, and that is the one on "original work" (Turing 83). Turing mentions this as part of a variant of Lady Lovelace's Objection. It should be noted that this idea has transcended all times and ages. As Turing says, "Who can be certain that "original work" that he has done was not simply the growth of the seed planted in him by teaching, or the effect of following well-known general principles?" (83) No one can. A similar thought always comes to mind on this issue and that is: well how do you even know that you are the first person to think of that? For instance, watching a fashion show on television these days can sometimes be almost identical to watching people walking the streets in the forties - especially when it comes to women's styles.

Watch Prada's 2007 Spring/Summer collection at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Kcp3RCK94 and make sure you pay attention to the high tight-waists, open-toe shoes, and mini-dresses, as well as the many bluntly stated observations of how even Prada gets ideas from the forties.

Apparently, we have reached the 21st century and while everything is moving forward with ingenious ideas, some fashion designers can not come up with much originality to call their own.

A teenage girl dressed in layered clothing with ballett flats on and a Hepburn haircut is seen to be original - but is she really?
A celebrity wearing a polka-dot mini-dress with a tight waist complimented with pumps, red lipstick and a clutch purse is seen as revolutionary - but has no one seen old movies?

The idea of "original work" fits in with the rest of Lady Lovelace's Objection that "the Analytical Engine has no pretensions to originate anything" (83), but in some areas of life, one can easily wonder if man is any more capable of doing so. Lynn's blog http://cmst1a0642839.blogspot.com really compliments this.

So, it is a belief of mine, and I am sure of many others, that fashion of the 21st century is only mimicking that of the early 20th.

But then again, it's fashion in the 21st century. Did we really expect more from the age of illegal downloading?


References
Turing, A.M.. “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” Introduction to Communication. Alexandre Sévigny. Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2006. 77-85.