More from R.G. Collingwood about "Yahoos," the term he borrows from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. In these paragraphs, Collingwood discusses the Yahoos under Yahoos, shall we say the lumpen-Yahoos? This suggests a hierarchy, or perhaps more accurately, a pecking order. "Bullying" becomes the modus operandi ("M.O." in cop talk) of the ascendant Yahoos over the lower Yahoos. In return for allowing themselves to be bullied, the herd receives some pittance of pleasure, the security of herd membership, and the appearance of a strong--albeit unpredictable--leader.
30. 55. There might be a second herd [of Yahoos] consisting of this [the first] herd’s dependants or slaves, related to them somewhat as aphides are related to ants, but installed in this relation and maintained in it by violence on the part of the first herd towards the second. This second herd would superficially resemble a ruled class.
30. 56. Such a herd would enjoy on the whole a happy life. Those who bullied the rest would not only obtain by doing so various gratifications for their various passions and desires; they would also, and chiefly, get gratification from the mere act of bullying. Those who were bullied would not only find happiness in the communal prosperity won for them by the strength and cunning of their leader; they would also, and chiefly, find happiness in simply being bullied; worshipping their leader with a dog-like devotion and revelling in the delightful feeling of herd solidarity with their fellows
Collingwood, R. G.. The New Leviathan. Read Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
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