Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one. - Charles Mackay

Hello, I am Charles Mackay. Let me share a quote that continues to echo across time, shedding light on human behavior in moments of collective fervor: "Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one." When I wrote this, I sought to capture a universal truth about the power and peril of collective thinking. Throughout history, humanity has demonstrated a tendency to follow the crowd, surrendering individual judgment to the sway of mass opinion. Whether driven by fear, greed, or fervent belief, entire populations have succumbed to collective delusions, often with disastrous consequences. In my own time, this was evident in the economic bubbles and manias that swept societies. Consider the infamous Tulip Mania of the 17th century, when tulip bulbs became symbols of speculative excess, or the South Sea Bubble, where investors blindly chased wealth until financial ruin brought them back to their senses. These events were not merely financial phenomena—they were reflections of how easily people abandon reason when swept up in the momentum of the herd.