Originating from Walter Lippman's commentating on mass culture, the 'bewildered herd' is the masses that are tamed through
propaganda and mass media in order that the machine of democracy is kept properly oiled.
The bewildered masses must be subdued, tamed, and injected with the
popular opinion of the upper class of politicians, heads of corporations, and all others belonging to the elite class of intellectuals and wealthy, in order to govern a nation and circumvent any defect in democracy.
The
single function of the bewildered masses is to be spectators, not participants, in a democratic
nation.
The bewildered masses give their
power to a benevolent overlord who makes decisions (apparently) for the good of them all.