John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill – Leadership and Being Unique from the Crowd

John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist and civil servant. He has been called “the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century.” Following is a brief excerpt from his treatise, On Liberty:

Regarding eccentricity, John Stuart Mill says:

At present individuals are lost in the crowd.

In politics it is almost a triviality to say that public opinion now rules the world. The only power deserving the name is that of masses, and of governments while they make themselves the organ of the tendencies and instincts of masses. This is as true in the moral and social relations of private life as in public transactions.

Those whose opinions go by the name of public opinion, are not always the same sort of public, but they are always a mass, that is to say, collective mediocrity. And what is a still greater novelty, the mass do not now take their opinions from dignitaries in Church or State, from ostensible leaders, or from books. Their thinking is done for them by men much like themselves, addressing them or speaking in their name, on the spur of the moment, through the newspapers.

I am not complaining of all this. I do not assert that anything better is compatible, as a general rule, with the present low state of the human mind. But that does not hinder the government of mediocrity from being mediocre government. No government by a democracy or a numerous aristocracy, either in its political acts or in the opinions, qualities, and tone of mind which it fosters, ever did or could rise above mediocrity, except in so far as the sovereign Many have let themselves be guided (which in their best times they always have done) by the counsels and influence of a more highly gifted and instructed One or Few.

The initiation of all wise or noble things, comes and must come from individuals; generally at first from some one individual. The honor and glory of the average man is that he is capable of following that initiative; that he can respond internally to wise and noble things, and be led to them with his eyes open. I am not countenancing the sort of “hero-worship” which applauds the strong man of genius for forcibly seizing on the government of the world and making it do his bidding in spite of itself. All he can claim is, freedom to point out the way. The power of compelling others into it, is not only inconsistent with the freedom and development of all the rest, but corrupting to the strong man himself.

It does seem, however, that when the opinions of masses of merely average men are everywhere become or becoming the dominant power, the counterpoise and corrective to that tendency would be, the more and more pronounced individuality of those who stand on the higher eminences of thought.

It is in these circumstances most especially, that exceptional individuals, instead of being deterred, should be encouraged in acting differently from the mass. In other times there was no advantage in their doing so, unless they acted not only differently, but better.

In this age the mere example of nonconformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained.

That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.

~~ John Stuart Mill

[I]t is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained.


<< Back to prior Abridgment Series [#GRZ_46]Forward to next Abridgment Series [#GRZ_60] >>

© 2016 Gregg Zegarelli, Esq. Gregg can be contacted through LinkedIn.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/john-stuart-mill-eccentricity-being-unique-from-zegarelli-esq-

See Article Index

___________________

You might also like

John Stuart Mill, On Leadership and Thinking

Freedom of Religion, by Thomas Jefferson – Abridgment Series

Branding America – In God We Trust. Or, Adams, Franklin, Jefferson and Washington Debate the American Slogan – Stand for America®

All Men Are Not Created Equal, or Why Thomas Jefferson Got it Wrong – Stand for America®

The Insecure Human Being – The Business of Aesop™ No. 51 – A Fox Without a Tail

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death! – Abridgment Series

The Google Privacy Case – 10 Year Anniversary – Business of Aesop™ No. 101 – The Porcupine and the Cave

Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography – The 13 Virtues – Abridgment Series

When Was America Great? – Stand for America®

The Declaration of Independence – Abridgment Series

John Adams, Thoughts on Government – Abridgment Series

___________________

GRZ47.20250202

<< Back to prior Abridgment Series [#GRZ_46]Forward to next Abridgment Series [#GRZ_60] >>