Aggregated Awareness

"...Some delusions, though notorious to all the world, have subsisted for ages, flourishing as widely among civilised and polished nations as among the early barbarians with whom they originate...Money, again, has often been a cause of the delusion of multitudes. Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper..." - Charles MacKay - Preface to the Edition of 1852, Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds