QUOTE(the fieryangel @ Tue 5th May 2009, 9:08am)
QUOTE(thekohser @ Tue 5th May 2009, 1:46am)
Akahele - Making a moot point-- Judd Bagley
QUOTE
In his book “The Wisdom of Crowdsâ€, James Surowiecki approaches crowds with the assumption that each member, however diverse, has one thing in common: a desire to “get it right†with respect to finding solutions to whatever challenges they jointly face. But what happens when some members of the crowd want to get it wrong? Can the influence of a few outliers alter the apparent will of the masses?
With a perceptive comment by Cedric :
QUOTE
If I recall correctly, Surowiecki chose the title of his book to serve as a counterpoint to Charles Mackey’s famous Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds...
Another great piece by Judd!
A little bit of serendipity as I was making a similar point in the Simple thread elsewhere.
The question for me with mob rule is whether it is outlying members of the mob or cynical manipulation of the mob by people who are not really members. For example, I would class JzG as an outlying member who is led along, but I would not class SlimVirgin or Jayjg as mob members - they are beyond the mob seeking to control it; and of course you have Jimbo trying to occasionally direct it or overrule it.
The differentiation is that I don't see a specific agenda with JzG, he just jumps on to subjects that get his goat and goes at it with gay abandon. The real manipulators are not part of the swarm, but have always sought to control and direct it; they are more like self-selected mob-rule managers who saw an opportunity. So I think that although you might class these senior members as outlying, I think the model has another dimension.