656. The vulgar crowd is always taken in by appearances, and the world consists chiefly of the vulgar.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI (1469-1527), The Prince, 1513.
Definition of vulgar (www.dictionary.com)- characterized by ignorance of or lack of good breeding or taste.
Niccolo Machiavelli is saying that ignorant people can always be appealed to through visuals, and since most of the people in the world are ignorant they can be easily conquered. We see an example of this with Hitler and the Germans he appealed to their senses and was able to fully turn them on their fellow man just because of his race. He used the star of David and other symbols to mark Jews visually so that people would know who they were and to discriminate against them. I don't quite know to classify this as because there's basis to this; it's just, people are ignorant, there's a lot of ignorant people, and this is how you appeal to them.
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