Charles MacKay & The Madness of Crowds

In case you missed it, I wrote a weekly review yesterday titled How culture overrides logic.

Today I will expand on Charles MacKay and his book, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Specifically, the topic of the madness of crowds and how it relates to online community work.

Community intelligence

Before I go into the madness of crowds, let's start with some positives, like community intelligence.

When structured correctly, communities can become incredibly intelligent. There's actually another great book called Power of the Herd: A Nonpredatory Approach to Social Intelligence, Leadership & Innovation. This book takes a look at the lessons nature teaches us in regards to building healthy social networks, communities, etc.

It also outlines the connection great leaders from the past have had with horses, in particular, and how that then correlates to the way they led armies or entire civilizations.

However, more often than not, when communities are left 'unchecked', they can quickly go from collective intelligence to collective madness.

Madness of crowds

During the late 1600s, an infamous series of trials took place - known as the Salem Witch Trials - of people accused of witchcraft. It was the deadliest witch hunt in colonial America and was one of the country's most notorious cases of mass hysteria.

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