Public Opinion — Chapter XV Leaders and The Rank and File

1. 1. Symbols like flags and gods are used by leaders to unify followers and discharge emotion at a common target, blurring individual ideas.
2. 2. In crises, manipulating masses through symbols may be necessary for quick action, even if it means sacrificing understanding.
3. 3. The 'manufacture of consent' through propaganda has become a self-conscious art and a regular organ of popular government.
4. 4. Leaders prefer policies with indirect costs, such as long-term debts or taxation on producers, because direct costs are more visible to voters.
5. 5. Revolutions and mutinies often follow a small sample of a big series of evils, not necessarily the worst single event.
6. 6. Leaders often pretend their programs originate from the public, but programs do not synchronously invent themselves in a multitude of minds.
7. 7. Established leaders have advantages in controlling access to facts and can act as censors and propagandists.
8. 8. The symbol immobilizes personality but mobilizes the group, enabling the mass to escape inertia in crises.