@rickmans Clearly there was a divide of opinion here, though, with one lot declaring (with Musk) that “vox populi, vox dei”; and Alcuin warning that it is “semper insaniae proxima”.

We may ask where that leaves the wisdom of the crowds? Or even Seneca, who states that the best ideas as held in common (“sciant quae optima sunt esse communia”)?

Mob rule needs separation from democratic impulses and sharing of common ideas; somehow “vox populi, vox dei” has conflated them in common usage.

@rickmans Funny how that always seems to happen when the mangling gives an unqualified boost to whomever is saying it instead of being a cautionary tale.

Like "the customer is always right", cut out of the original "In matters of taste, the customer is always right", meaning if you are tacky enough to hang a giant mirror over your bed, okay, but if you want to attach that giant breakable plate glass mirror with just doublesided sticky tape, that's a hard no right there.

@rickmans @StevePeers Thank you. That’s priceless 🙂

“A little learning is a dangerous thing.
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring;
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
and drinking largely sobers us again.”

@rickmans I mostly agree. I like the populous' ability to riot against their rulers when they're exploited, tho (still they're too slow, IMO); what I definitely do not like - and that's where I completely agree with you - is their tendency to hate strangers and harass anyone they consider different (gay ppl, autistic people), and how easily manipulable the masses are.

From religion to conspiracy theories to xenophobia and war.

I like very much what K said to J in Men in Black: "A person is smart; people are dumb."

https://youtu.be/w2ppyMUlXfM

@rickmans nice. But that's not generally how it has been used

According to Wikipedia (because I do not speak Latin, and there's no sense in a full lit review for a toot) it is also the title of a tract in 1709, which used the phrase in a favorable fashion consistent with the phrases usage since 1327.

Generally for centuries it has been used as musk used it

@rickmans To be fair, your quote was *a* context in which the expression was used, not *the* context.

From the quote itself we can tell it was an existing saying and that other people believed that the voice of the people was the voice of God.

All the same, the quote adds a nice counterpoint to Musk's statement about polls.

@rickmans thank you for providing us with the full context.

Sumus Primi

@rickmans thank you for this — it sent me on a little research mission….

Apparently there is a long history of decontextualizing Alcuin’s phrase in political rhetoric — going back as far as 1327, when the Archbishop of Canterbury used it the way Mr. Musk is now using it!

@rickmans I was thinking the same thing.

It's absurdly funny how he used it to try and look smart

His fans will just cheer and say he created that saying himself anyway

@rickmans

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

Mark Twain