He Noticed the Masses, but not How Destructive They Were

I am referring to Ortega y Gasset (he got the Ortega from his father and the Gasset from his mother).

He was the first person to write about the Masses, and he became famous for that. He was functioning as a Sociologist, when he did this - but was never placed in that category.

The Masses were the result of the Industrial Revolution - that has never been dealt with adequately either. It was a huge thing that overwhelmed the people it affected. And produced both Good and Evil, in abundance.

The Evil it produced, were a series of wars (the American Civil War, WWI, the Depression, WWII, the Cold War) much more destructive than any before them. The Good it produced, was material abundance (Affluence) - more than ever before dreamed of. This also included huge Medical advances - and a population boom.

And, most importantly - a reversal of values, that made a different kind of people - and a different kind of machines.

This different kind of people were the Masses. That became powerful in the Twenties, when he was writing about them - but even more powerful, later in that century, with the arrival of Television and the Computer. Both networked machines.

I have found it useful to categorize different cultures, or periods of history, as constructive or destructive. And the US, the UK, and the EU (all mass cultures) - are going through a period of self-destruction.