Revolt of the Masses
by José Ortega y Gasset · first published 2021
62% recommend38% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A short essay on mass society and the rise of the 'mass-man' who accepts no standards beyond his own. It examines how modern politics and culture reflect this shift.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…Mencken a critic, Dewey a pragmatist–Rorty rates Dewey very highly, Lippmann I seem to recall to coming across…, Stone, don't think so. Interesting list. And if I may be so bold. Have you considered The Revolt of the Masses by Ortega y Gasset? A prescient work. Somewhat more obscure is The Reality of the Mass Media by Niklas Luhmann, Curtis mentions nearly every cyberneticist and cybernetic theorist bar Luhmann, probably…
on “‘Success’ on YouTube Still Means a Life of Poverty” ↗Eye-opening/shocking books: "Science et Méthode" (Henri Poincaré, 1908) "The Conquest of Happiness" (Bertrand Russell, 1930) "The Revolt of the Masses" (José Ortega y Gasset, 1930) "Brave New World" (Aldous Huxley, 1932) "Reason" (Isaac Asimov, 1941, short story) "Animal Farm" (George Orwell, 1945) "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (George Orwell, 1949) "Starship…
on “Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?” ↗…"The Old Regime and the Revolution" Alexis de Tocqueville, "On Liberty" by John Stuart Mill, "A Treatise on Political Economy" by Jean-Baptiste Say, "The Man Versus the State" by Herbert Spencer, "The Revolt of the Masses" by José Ortega y Gasset, "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy" by Joseph Alois Schumpeter, "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" by Karl Popper, "The Machinery of Freedom" by David Friedman, "On Power"…
on “Ask HN: What's one book that changed your life?” ↗The issue of "mass-man" affecting the society has been well described in Ortega y Gasset's "The Revolt of the Masses" http://www.pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/revolt.pdf
on “The Social Disease” ↗I'd recommend, on the same subject, the book The Revolt of the Masses, by José Ortega y Gasset.
on “The Death Of Expertise” ↗…Paine, "Gespräche mit Goethe" by Johann Peter Eckermann, "The Old Regime and the Revolution" Alexis de Tocqueville, "On Liberty" by John Stuart Mill, "The Man Versus the State" by Herbert Spencer, "The Revolt of the Masses" by José Ortega y Gasset, "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" by Karl Popper, "On Power" Bertrand de Jouvenel, "1984" by George Orwell, "The State" by Anthony de Jasay, "Sketched With the Quill" by Andrzej…
on “Ask HN: Non-tech books that have helped you grow professionally?” ↗The Revolt of the Masses by José Ortega y Gasset Edit: Not quite 100 years but will leave it here for posterity
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?” ↗- Meditations on Quixote and the Revolt of the Masses by Jose Ortega y Gasset - Iliad by Homer
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗The Revolt of the Masses by Ortega Y Gasset
on “Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?” ↗Alternate hosts of the paper can be found using Google Scholar; here's one: http://dspace.learningnetworks.org/bitstream/1820/629/1/ICLS... [pdf] From José Ortega y Gasset's Revolt of the Masses [1930]: “Doubtless the most radical division of humanity that can be made is that between two classes of creatures: those who demand much of themselves and assume a burden of…
on “The Cognitive Style of Unix” ↗Before that, in 1930, the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset (two surnames) published "The Revolt of the Masses" book [1], going even further. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revolt_of_the_Masses
on “America's Cult of Ignorance (1980) [pdf]” ↗Thanks for the suggestions, they're new to me. Again, I am not proficient here, just ambitious. The Revolt of the Masses by Ortega y Gasset is at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/TheRevoltOfTheMassesJoseOrtegaYG... More to follow.
on “‘Success’ on YouTube Still Means a Life of Poverty” ↗It’s been some time since I’ve read it but this could be from The Revolt of the Masses by José Ortega y Gasset.
on “How do you know if you’re living through the death of an empire?” ↗It is a little bit old https://www.amazon.com/The-Revolt-of-the-Masses/dp/B0934PV37..., but yeah, I agree that it has been crazy lately. I am not a European (check the audio preview of the book, he focuses on Europe), but the phenomena that Jose Ortega very cleverly highlighted…
on “The US Is Winning the AI Race” ↗> This is simply the human condition. It was just as true of written language and illustration. There's a famous book, "The Revolt of the Masses" by Ortega, which claims the opposite. His conclusion is that, before mass media, common people were uneducated, but were actually quite aware of and humble about their ignorance - they did not think…
on “The rise of the internet and a new age of authoritarianism” ↗