"The human animal cannot be trusted for anything good except en masse. The combined thought and action of the whole people of any race, creed or nationality, will always point in the right direction"
About this Quote
A president who ordered the bomb, built NATO, and stared down Stalin is an odd messenger for faith in crowds. That friction is the point. Truman’s line flatters democracy while quietly confessing what executive power teaches: individuals are unreliable, self-interested, and easily swayed, but the mass can be treated as a moral compass. It’s populism with a hard-edged, managerial premise: legitimacy comes from aggregation, not purity.
The phrasing does two things at once. “The human animal” strips the citizen of romance; it’s a cold biological metaphor that reads like a man who’s seen panic, prejudice, and petty graft up close. Then “except en masse” pivots to uplift. The quote sells the idea that democracy works not because people are wise, but because their errors cancel out. That’s a comforting justification for majoritarian politics, and it also functions as a rebuke to elitism: the technocrat can advise, but the people, taken together, get the final moral veto.
The subtext is more anxious. “Always point in the right direction” isn’t political science; it’s a stabilizing myth in the mid-century crisis state, when mass mobilization had just defeated fascism and the Cold War demanded civic unity. Truman is defending the democratic crowd against the era’s fear of crowds: the same “en masse” that powers collective good can also fuel demagoguery. The quote tries to pin that volatile force to a single, reassuring destiny.
The phrasing does two things at once. “The human animal” strips the citizen of romance; it’s a cold biological metaphor that reads like a man who’s seen panic, prejudice, and petty graft up close. Then “except en masse” pivots to uplift. The quote sells the idea that democracy works not because people are wise, but because their errors cancel out. That’s a comforting justification for majoritarian politics, and it also functions as a rebuke to elitism: the technocrat can advise, but the people, taken together, get the final moral veto.
The subtext is more anxious. “Always point in the right direction” isn’t political science; it’s a stabilizing myth in the mid-century crisis state, when mass mobilization had just defeated fascism and the Cold War demanded civic unity. Truman is defending the democratic crowd against the era’s fear of crowds: the same “en masse” that powers collective good can also fuel demagoguery. The quote tries to pin that volatile force to a single, reassuring destiny.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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