[T]he tide that rose in the unconscious after the first World War was
reflected in individual dreams, in the form of collective mythological
symbols which expressed primitivity, violence, cruelty: in short, all
the powers of darkness. When such symbols occur in a large number of
individuals and are not understood, they begin to draw these individuals
together as if by magnetic force, and thus a mob is formed. Its leader
will soon be found in the individual who has the least resistance, the
least sense of responsibility and, because of his inferiority, the
greatest will to power. He will let loose everything that is ready to
burst forth, and the mob will follow with the irresistible force of an
avalanche. [...] He was the most prodigious personification of all human
inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible,
psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed
with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the
shadow, the inferior part of everybody's personality, in an overwhelming
degree, and this was another reason they fell for him.
Carl Gustav Jung, "The Fight with the Shadow",
first published in The Listener (London), XXXVI (1946), no. 930, 615-16.
