Very fast, Nevertheless, took on its current negatively charged conceptual content, so that it means the one who misleads the people with deceit and lies, manipulates him and leads him into decisions, options and practices, reinforcing and promoting its goals.
The occasional demagogues, taking advantage of ignorance, the impulsiveness and sometimes the sensitivities of the crowd, they became and continue to be the cause of extermination of capable and honest men, suppression and moral extermination of their political or ideological opponents, real or imagined, directing and fanning the crowd, which takes actions, which under other circumstances would not be thought of.
Why, the fear of punishment as well as logic prevent many from fornicating, to revile, to persecute or even criminalize, when they are and act as individuals.
Just, Nevertheless, be found- and they are lost- in the anonymity of the crowd, which ensures their impunity and removes any suspensions, then they take unethical and extreme actions or make decisions, which are not affected by logic, but they are dominated by passion and rage, which this creates, and that is why, as a rule, they turn out to be harmful or even destructive...
They are shouting, because the other is also shouting, they revile because the other also reviles, they rebel, because the other is also rebelling, without having the slightest idea of the cause, for which they clamor, they revile and rebel.
Trapped in the web of bigotry, nor do they want to, nor can they think logically, to judge coolly and to reflect...
These people, under the influence of fanaticism they cannot think rationally and do not tolerate counterargument. They are heterogeneous, reliably, changeable, unstable, impulsive and intolerant, for which "don't convince me" applies, even convinced".
And it takes great strength and courage to be able to, always few, cool and prudent to go against the current of general insanity and stand tall and alone in the fearful desolation of the crowd, like Christ!
The Christ, where within a week he experienced the frenzy and insanity of the crowd, which one day swept the place, from the reception he reserved for him, and a few days later, he heard the same crowd shouting “aron, therefore crucify him" and exalt Him alone, directly on the Cross, abandoned by His own disciples.
From ancient times to today, history has recorded on its pages a number of elites who were hunted by demagogues, like Aristides the Just, but also a number of disastrous decisions, that were received, under the influence of demagoguery, such as the Sicilian campaign, which led to the destruction of the Athenian army .
Demosthenes in his third Olynthian speech makes a revealing observation about the destructive effect of demagogues and the gullibility of the people, thundering that "where are those who question you, these persistent speakers, 'what do you want? what do I write? what do I give you?'" predicts the city's affairs, and that's what happens, and he always has good things about them, te d' yameter' aishcros"!
“After, that is, appeared the rhetoricians who ask you “what do you desire; what to suggest; what favor can I do you?;» from that moment the interests of the city were recklessly sacrificed in exchange for temporary popularity; for’ that's why such things happen;’ that all their affairs are going well, while yours are for shame".
The same could be said about the modern data of the grim reality, which as individuals and as a people we experience.
Our critical faculty has been dulled by the dominance of image and slogan.
Our moral resistances have been shaken by the reversal of the scale of values.
Our mental endurance has been bent by the onslaught of economic hardship.
Calm and prudence and logic, which should govern reasons, our actions and decisions, have given way to a desperate dependence and attachment to whoever caresses our ears, says what we want to hear, promising what we would like to happen or presenting as reality what we fear might happen!
After all, the problem may not lie with those who have embraced what Hitler advised, that, that is, “if you want the sympathy of the masses, you must tell the stupidest and fattest lies", but to those who believe them uncritically and without suffering!
† Dorotheos II of Syros and Mykonos
("DEMOKRATIA" newspaper, SATURDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2014)