the weirdness of the crowd
TRANSCRIPT
The Weirdness of the CrowdOnline Refactor Camp July 26, 2016
Renee DiResta & Megan Lubaszka
01 Defining the Basics
02 Summarizing the Texts
(material in the pre-read)
03 Discussion: Relating the material to the present
Agenda
01Defining the basicsMass Movements & True Believers
Mass Movements
“A mass movement denotes a political party or movement which is supported by large segments of a population.”
• Social researchers segment crowd/mass psychology in a few ways: mob social movement opinion current
• Elements in the academic study of mass movements include: charisma, leadership, role of active minorities, cults and sects, alienation, brainwashing and indoctrination, authoritarianism, and totalitarianism. (source: Wikipedia)
True Believers
Frustrated with the present and hopeful for a new future. “Their innermost craving is for a new life - a rebirth - or, failing this, a chance to aquire new elements of pride, confidence, hope and sense of purpose and worth by an identification with a holy cause.” (source: Eric Hoffer)
• Men of words - pioneer movement by discrediting prevailing order with discourse
• Fanatics - materialize movement into its dynamic, chaotic desire for change and war with present
• Men of action - consolidate movement through practical means, crystallizing it into a mature insitution
THE FRUSTRATED THE POOR THE BORED
STUDENTS MISFITS THE AMBITIOUS
02Summarizing the TextsMaterials in the pre-read
Crowds & Power
Historical Context• Written in 1960, translated to English from German in 1962.
• Author, Elias Canetti, grew up between two world wars and was forced to
flee Vienna when the Nazis arrived in 1938. “There is no other hope for the
survival of mankind than knowing enough about the people it is made up of.”
• In 1981, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature for the work.
Crowds & Power
Central Themes
On Crowds...• “There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown.”
Canetti means this literally as well as figuratively - think of the way we move
on public transit, the way we lock our doors even when the likelihood of
someone entering is remote.
• The counterintuitive is that we no longer fear being touched when we’re
in a crowd. We feel safe as part of the masses, provided the mass is dense
enough.
On Crowds...Open crowds, which he considers “true” crowds, are marked by their
spontaneity: they grow, they naturally attract everyone who observes them,
drawing them in with a gravitational force, and they are destructive (in a
physical sense). And then, they dissipate. Closed crowds are marked by
permanence, boundaries, and in-group/out-group dynamics. Their size is
often deliberately limited in some way; Canetti uses the analogy of a vessel
filling with liquid. What closed crowds sacrifice in growth they gain in staying
power; they often turn into institutions. Closed crowds can transform into
open crowds by means of an eruption.
On Crowds...Canetti uses the term “the discharge” to describe the moment that creates
the crowd. In the discharge, all men suddenly feel themselves to be equal.
This is the generation of camaraderie, which may be fleeting in an open
crowd, but is nonetheless powerful. All men are the same in the crowd; the
distance between haves and have-nots is temporarily eliminated. But when
the crowd dissipates, that distance returns. This leads to a fundamental
underlying tension - the crowd must keep momentum to stave off that return.
On Crowds...Crowd destructiveness happens in large part because of the discharge;
barriers and limitations between the self and others must be destroyed,
particularly physical things like buildings and fences. Fire is a remarkably
effective means of doing this, because it can be seen from a distance and
attracts others, so it serves the dual purpose of growing the crowd as well.
On Crowds...Regardless of the type of crowd, there needs to be direction, a common goal
- and the fear of the crowd dispersing is enough to make it prone to accept
any goal.
On Crowds...A sense of persecution unites the crowd, as it believes itself to be under
constant attack from without and within. If the attack is from outside, it
strengthens the crowd as it unites against the “other”. If the attack is from
within, however, it’s dangerous; this is where we see the notion of “false
flag” conspiracy theories, accusations that members are spies, and checks of
doctrinal soundness coming into play.
On Crowds...Some crowds come together around “crowd crystals” - distinct small groups
of people who precipitate crowds.
The behavior of crowds: 1. The crowd always wants to grow2. Within the crowd there is equality3. The crowd loves density4. The crowd needs a direction
5 TYPES OF CROWDS
5 TYPES OF CROWDS1. Baiting Crowds
Baiting Crowds“found among animals as well as amongst men”, this crowd forms with an
eye on a quickly achievable goal. Canetti describes this as a group of hunters
after a kill, with everyone who participates personally determined to strike a
blow. This crowd forms quickly because there is safety in numbers; they can
satiate bloodlust with little to no personal risk.
5 TYPES OF CROWDS1. Baiting Crowds2. Flight Crowds
Flight Crowdscreated by a common danger that the members must flee; members are
unified because the danger is distributed and therefore most will survive.
When members do fall, it increases the resolve of the others, spurs them
to continue the flight. (Canetti felt this one personally; his example was the
movement of the Germans into cities leading up to World War II)
5 TYPES OF CROWDS1. Baiting Crowds2. Flight Crowds3. Prohibition Crowds
Prohibition Crowdsmarked by a group refusing to do something they had previously always
done; a labor strike is an obvious example.
5 TYPES OF CROWDS1. Baiting Crowds2. Flight Crowds3. Prohibition Crowds4. Reversal Crowds
Reversal Crowdsthe crowd of revolutions and revolts, in which “the sheep eat the wolves” for
a change. The precondition is strata: societal layers, perceived affronts such
as being subject to commands.
5 TYPES OF CROWDS1. Baiting Crowds2. Flight Crowds3. Prohibition Crowds4. Reversal Crowds5. Feast Crowds
FeastCrowdsunified in celebration.
Crowds & Power
Examples
Present day Crowds• World religions - stagnant, closed crowds (The Pilgrimage to Mecca)• Theatrical events or concerts - audiences watching a performance, constrained within a theatre.• Political movements - we will talk extensively about this• Wars - specifically, these are an eruption of two crowds.• Mobs• Sporting events - closed crowds, strong incorporation of ritual and allusions to older, warlike crowds. Rhythmic movements, chants, physicality.
On Power...While crowds themselves may or may not be benign, the opposite behavior
never is: power-seekers avoid participation in the crowd and its security in
numbers. They are “incapable of deep empathy…they dehumanize those
who oppose them and assume that all who differ from them, however
various wear confounding disguises. Beneath those disguises…may be found
in every case the same enemy.”
Consider the language of politicians - they are always of the people. They
are always the everyman, there is no distance. They expend great energy
proclaiming that they not “elite.”
On Power...The command - first introduced in the section on reversal crowds, the
command is a small, painful insult to the one receiving it (if it is directed
specifically to an individual). Commands have momentum - the recipient
must act - and sting. This recipient passes on the sting of command to make
himself feel better, by either issuing his own command to one still lower,
or by attempting to exact revenge on the one who commanded him. (If
there are many below and one above, a reversal crowd may be successful in
revenge against one issuing commands.)
On Power...o As the recipient feels sting, the person giving the command feels anxiety and recoil. The anxiety is that the recipient will always remember the command and may attempt to exact revenge in the future. o Commands given to groups - think military - are diffused across a large group of people, and so there is no sting. A command addressed to a group has the intent of turning them into a crowd, so there is no sting or fear - this can be the command of a captain, or the “slogan of a demagogue, impelling people in a certain direction.” o Commands are so ancient that they predate speech and transcend species; the domestication of dogs.o Those who commit atrocities in the name of command often see themselves as victims, since they feel the sting.
On Power...Power addiction is indicated by demands for secrecy and obedience, application of physical means of control and intimidation (torture, imprisonment).
6 ELEMENTS OF POWER1. Force
ForceForce is the “lower and cruder” manifestation of power. “When force gives
itself time in which to operate it becomes power.” Power is ceremonious,
patient, and not rushed. It is less dynamic. Power takes up space and time;
force is instantaneously deployed.
Force1. To understand the distinction between the two, Canetti uses the example
of the domestic cat, which toys with its prey before killing it. To obtain the
prey, it must use force; once it has it under control, it ceases to use force and
takes its time. It may even let the prey almost get away - but the reality is that
the cat is always in control, and the cat never actually changes its intentions
or loses interest. The prey is always in the “sphere of power” of the cat. At
the final moment of the kill, the cat will revert again to force.
Force2. Another example provided is that of religion, particularly Islam and
Calvinism: “Their believes yearn for God’s force; His power alone does not
satisfy them; it is too distant and leaves them too free.” Some religions look
for specific commands, specific intense moments of God exercising force in
their life - think snake handlers.
6 ELEMENTS OF POWER1. Force2. Speed
Speedspeed of pursuit of power, speed of grasping power.
6 ELEMENTS OF POWER1. Force2. Speed3. Questions
QuestionsQuestions are often evidence of a power dynamic; “all questioning is a
forceable intrusion,” claims Canetti. Questioning is a dissection, a getting at
what is inside a person. Interrogation is an extreme form. Questions require
an answer, and silence, while a defense, does nothing to change the power
dynamic because the questioner still holds the cards.
6 ELEMENTS OF POWER1. Force2. Speed3. Questions4. Secrecy
SecrecySecrecy is the core of power. In animals, stalking and lying in wait is secrecy.
In humans, it can take several forms. Knowledge of a secret is power, even if
it is knowledge of a dubious secret (think healers, medicine men, sorcerers).
“Power is impene`trable. The man who has it sees through other men, but
does not allow them to see through him.”
6 ELEMENTS OF POWER1. Force2. Speed3. Questions4. Secrecy5. Judgement and Condemnation
6 ELEMENTS OF POWER1. Force2. Speed3. Questions4. Secrecy5. Judgement and Condemnation6. Pardon & Mercy
Pardon & MercyAnd the flip side: the power of pardon and mercy, which are rarely bestowed,
largely ceremonial, and should not be misinterpreted as forgiveness or
forgetting.
Case Study: The Crowd in HistoryGermany & Versailles and the rise of Hitler & Nazism
Case Study: The Crowd in HistoryThe crowd symbol of Germany, dating as far back as the 1870s, was the army (which Canetti traces back further to having the origin of being a symbol
of the forest - he uses a lot of nature metaphors for crowd symbols)
Case Study: The Crowd in HistoryThe German people were extremely used to seeing army squadrons; they were proud of them, and thus they were a symbol of the nation. More importantly, however, the army was also tangible: every German served in this closed crowd. Belief in the importance and value of army service was more universal than belief in religion. “The conviction of its profound significance and the veneration accorded it, had a wider reach than the traditional religions, for it embraced Catholics and Protestants alike. Anyone who excluded himself was no German.”
Case Study: The Crowd in HistoryWhile Canetti generally excludes standing armies from his definition of crowds (not spontaneous; highly regimented), he makes a specific exception for the German army.
Case Study: The Crowd in HistoryThe start of World War I transformed Germany into “one open crowd” - Adolf Hitler himself recounted the collective excitement of the nation in his memoirs, mentioned falling to his knees and thanking God upon hearing that the war had begun. Canetti calls this Hitler’s “decisive experience” - the moment in which Hitler himself was part of the crowd. Subsequently, Hitler would recreate this moment from the outside, holding himself apart from the crowd, but reminding Germany of a time in which it was “conscious of its military striking power and exulting and united in it.”
Case Study: The Crowd in HistoryThe Treaty of Versailles led to the disbanding of the German army, which crushed national identity. And, according to Canetti, “Every closed crowd which is dissolved by force transforms itself into an open crowd to which it imparts all its own characteristics.” In this case, the dissolution of the closed crowd of the army birthed the open crowd of National Socialism. Everyone who could not participate in the dissolved army could still participate in Nazism. “Versailles” became a rallying cry - not of defeat, but of the “prohibition of specific and sacrosanct practices” core to German life.
Case Study: The Crowd in HistoryHitler and other Nazi leaders spoke repeatedly of “The Diktat of Versailles” - hammering home that it was a command, a rule from the enemy, from outsiders, from aliens.
Case Study: The Crowd in HistoryThe entire Third Reich can be viewed as a movement to reconstitute the crowd - the German army - and, by extension, the pride and unity of the German people.
The Power Tactics of Jesus ChristHistorical Context• Published in 1969, one year after the moon landing, the assassinations of
Martin Luther King Jr & RFK, the Prague Spring.
• 96% of US households had at least one television
The Power Tactics of Jesus ChristHistorical Context“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m
right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t
know which will go first - rock’n’roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his
disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.” -
John Lennon 1966
(Voice of Judas)
Every time I look at youI don’t understandWhy you let the things you didGet so out of handYou’d have managed betterIf you’d had it plannedNow why’d you choose such a backward timeAnd such a strange land?If you’d come todayYou could have reached a whole nationIsrael in 4 BCHad no mass communication
Jesus ChristWho are you? What have you sacrificed?
Jesus ChristSuperstarDo you think you’re what they say you are?
Tell me what you thinkAbout your friends at the topNow who d’you think besides yourselfWas the pick of the crop?Buddah was he where it’s at?Is he where you are?Could Muhammad move a mountainOr was that just PR?Did you mean to die like that?Was that a mistake orDid you know your messy deathWould be a record breaker?
-Jesus Christ Superstar - 1970
PremiseA social scientist looks at the innovations of Jesus as an organizer and a leader of men.
This single individual designed the strategy of an organization that not only took over the Roman Empire but ultimately held absolute power over the populace of the Western world for many hundreds of years.
#1 InnovationThe idea of striking for power by organizing the poor and powerless.
Context Forces In His Favor• The population was discontented
• Poverty from heavy Roman taxes
• Nepotistic priestly hierarchy
• Divided power structure (establishment did not have a united front)
• Persistent myth of a coming Messiah that would magically alleviate all
difficulties
Why Preach?
He was not rich or powerful or a Roman.
In Judaism at the time the only way a man could rise from low to high estate
was by following a religious life.
People respected and listened to wandering prophets who spoke in the
streets.
His poverty was a virtue, not a handicap.
Tactics to Discredit the Prevailing Order1. He insisted that he was not sugesting a change and then he called for a
change.
2. He insisted the ideas he was presenting were not deviations from the
established religion but a more true expression of that religion.
Secrecy & LeaksHis reputation as a healer was what brought him the most notoriety.
This was the easiest wat to become immediately famous.
Illness knows no class, so this gave him access to the rich and powerful.
He advisesd his patients to keep all cures secret.
This only increased his fame.
Picking FightsIf a man wishes to be thought of as an equal or a superior to a powerful
opponent, he can make audacious personal attacks on him.
The more audacious the attack, the more promient does the attacker
become.
Jesus not only attacked the existing leaders by calling them serpents,
hypocrites and vipers, he made a physical assault on the moneychangers in
the temple.
Building an OrgOne of his first acts was recruiting a cadre who would recruit others.
“for they were fishers. And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you
fishers of men.” - Matthew 4:19
His followers had to give up everything.
“Let the dead bury their dead.” Luke 9:60
He gave them authority to heal the sick, raise the dead, clease lepers, and
cast out devils. He also gave them status.
Collecting a FollowingHe was the first leader to lay down a program for building a following among
the poor and powerless.
He promised a paradise in some ill-defind future if they followed him
(similarly the Bolsheviks offered a classless society and Hitler a thousand year
Reich).
The Surrender TacticYou cannot defeat a helpless opponent; if you stike him and your blows are
unreturned, you can only suffer feelings of guilt and exasperation as well as
doubt as to who is the victor.
It has its risks as well as its triumphs: Jesus, Gandhi and Martin Luther King all
died violent deaths.
No Compromises As the final struggle comes into being, he takes a position of “no
compromise” with the governing power.
His goal is not power within the framework of the establishment. So no
compromise or bargaining is possible.
If he succeeds, what follows is a ruthless elimination of any and all
opponents.
The True BelieverHistorical Context
The book analyzes and attempts to explain the motives of the various types of personalities that give rise to mass movements; why and how mass movements start, progress and end; and the similarities between them, whether religious, political, radical or reactionary. Hoffer argues that even when their stated goals or values differ mass movements are interchangeable, that adherents will often flip from one movement to another, and that the motivations for mass movements are interchangeable. Thus, religious, nationalist and social movements, whether radical or reactionary, tend to attract the same type of followers, behave in the same way and use the same tactics and rhetorical tools. As examples, the book often refers to Communism, Fascism, National Socialism, Christianity,
The True BelieverHistorical Context
Hoffer was influenced by his modest roots and working-class surroundings, seeing in it vast human potential. In a letter to Margaret Anderson in 1941, he wrote:
My writing is done in railroad yards while waiting for a freight,in the fields while waiting for a truck, and at noon after lunch.Towns are too distracting.He once remarked, “my writing grows out of my life just as a branch from a tree.”
When he was called an intellectual, he insisted that he was a longshoreman. Hoffer has been dubbed by some authors a “longshoreman philosopher.” (source Wikipedia)
Historical Context
Hoffer came to public attention with the 1951 publication of his first book, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. Concerned about the rise of totalitarian governments, especially those of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, he tried to find the roots of these “madhouses” in human psychology.
The first and best-known of Hoffer’s books, The True Believer has been published in 23 editions between 1951 and 2002.
The True Believer
The True BelieverCentral Themes
The True BelieverThis book deals with the active phase of a mass movement, when it grows and gains momentum. The mind of most members of most mass movements is a frustrated one:
1.) frustration of itself, without any proselytizing prompting from the outside, can generate most of the peculiar characteristics of the True Believer
2.) an effective technique of conversion consists basically in the inculcation and fixation of proclivities and responses indigenous to the frustrated mind.
The True BelieverMass movements
-generate in their adherents a readiness to die
-a proclivity for united action
-breed fanaticism, enthusiasm, fervent hope, hatred, and intolerance -are capable of releasing a flow of activity in certain departments of life
-demand blind faith and singlehearted allegiance
Who is a True Believer?The reason that the inferior elements of a nation can exert a marked influence on its course is that they are wholly without reverence for the present. They see their lives and the present as spoiled beyond remedy and they are ready to waste and wreck both: hence their recklessness and their will to chaos and anarchy. They also crave to dissolve their spoiled, meaningless selves in some soul-stirring spectacular communal undertaking - hence their proclivity for united action.
Who is a True Believer?Though the disaffected are found in all walks of life, they are most frequent in the following categories:
(a) the poor (b) misfits & outcasts (d) minorities (e) adolescent youth (f) the ambitious (whether facing insurmountable obstacles or unlimited opportunities) (g) those in the grip of some vice or obsession (h) the impotent (in body or mind) (i) the inordinately selfish (j) the bored (k) the sinners
Characters of aMass MovementThe three essential characters to a mass movement’s active phase are men of words, the fanatic and practical men of action:.
What the classification attempts to suggest is that the readying of the ground for a mass movement is done best by men whose chief claim is to excellence in their skill in the use of the spoken or written word; that the hatching of an actual mass movement requires the temperament and the talents of a fanatic; and that the final consolidation of the movement is largely the work of practical men of action.
Men of Wordsthe militant man of words prepares the ground for the rise of a mass movement:
1) by discrediting prevailing creeds and institutions and detaching from them the allegiance of the people.
2) by indirectly creating a hunger for faith in the hearts of those who cannot live without it, so that when the new faith is preached it finds an eager response among the disillusioned masses
3) by furnishing the doctrine and slogans of the new faith
4) by undermining the convictions of the “better people” - those who can get along without faith - so that when the new fanaticism makes its appearance they are without the capacity to resist it. They see no sense in dying for convictions and principles and yield to the new order without a fight.
FanaticsHe feels at home in a state of chaos…Only when engaged in change does he have a sense of freedom and the feeling that he is growing and developing. It is because he can never be reconciled with his self that he fears finality and a fixed order of things. Marat, Robespierre, Lenin, Mussolini and Hitler are outstanding examples of fanatics arising from the ranks of noncreative men of words.
The danger of the fanatic to the development of a movement is that he cannot settle down. If allowed to have their way, the fanatics may split a movement into schism and heresies which threaten its existence. Even when the fanatics do not breed dissension, they can still wreck the movement by driving it to attempt the impossible. Only the entrance of a practical man of action can save the achievements of the movement.
Practical Men ofAction A movement is pioneered by men of words, materialized by fanatics and consolidated by men of action.
The man of action saves the movement from the suicidal dissensions and the recklessness of the fanatics. But his appearance usually marks the end of the dynamic phase of the movement. The war with the present is over. The genuine man of action is intent not on renovating the world but on possessing it.
Whereas the life breath of the dynamic phase was protest and a desire for drastic change, the final phase is chiefly preoccupied with administering and perpetuating the power won.
HatredWe always look for allies when we hate.
Self-contempt is here transmuted into hatred of others—and there is a most determined and persistent effort to mask this switch. Obviously, the most effective way of doing this is to find others, as many as possible, who hate as we do. Here more than anywhere else we need general consent, and much of our proselytizing consists perhaps in infecting others not with our brand of faith but with our particular brand of unreasonable hatred.
When we feel superior to our tormentors, we are likely to despise them, even pity them, but not hate them. That the relation between grievance and hatred is not simple and direct is also seen from the fact that the released hatred is not always directed against those who wronged us. Often, when we are wronged by one person, we turn our hatred on a wholly unrelated person or group.
Self-contempt produces in man “the most unjust and criminal passions imaginable, for he conceives a mortal hatred against that truth which blames him and convinces him of his faults.”
PropagandaThe truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds; neither can it inculcate something wholly new; nor can it keep people persuaded once they have ceased to believe. It penetrates only into minds already open, and rather than instill opinion it articulates and justifies opinions already present in the minds of its recipients.
The gifted propagandist brings to a boil ideas and passions already simmering in the minds of his hearers. He echoes their innermost feelings. Where opinion is not coerced, people can be made to believe only in what they already “know.”
Propaganda by itself succeeds mainly with the frustrated. Their throbbing fears, hopes and passions crowd at the portals of their senses and get between them and the outside world. They cannot see but what they have already imagined, and it is the music of their own souls they hear in the impassioned words of the propagandist. Indeed, it is easier for the frustrated to detect their own imaginings and hear the echo of their own musings in impassioned double-talk and sonorous refrains than in precise words joined together with faultless logic. Propaganda by itself, however skillful, cannot keep people persuaded once they have ceased to believe.
The LeaderIt needs the iron will, daring and vision of an exceptional leader to concert and mobilize existing attitudes and impulses into the collective drive of a mass movement.
The leader personifies the certitude of the creed and the defiance and grandeur of power.
He articulates and justifies the resentment dammed up in the souls of the frustrated. He kindles the vision of a breathtaking future so as to justify the sacrifice of a transitory present. He stages the world of make-believe so indispensable for the realization of self-sacrifice and united action. He evokes the enthusiasm of communion—the sense of liberation from a petty and meaningless individual existence.
The LeaderWhat are the talents requisite for such a performance?
Exceptional intelligence, noble character and originality seem neither indispensable nor perhaps desirable.
The main requirements seem to be: audacity and a joy in defiance; an iron will; a fanatical conviction that he is in possession of the one and only truth; faith in his destiny and luck; a capacity for passionate hatred; contempt for the present; a cunning estimate of human nature; a delight in symbols (spectacles and ceremonials); unbounded brazenness which finds expression in a disregard of consistency and fairness; a recognition that the innermost craving of a following is for communion and that there can never be too much of it; a capacity for winning and holding the utmost loyalty of a group of able lieutenants.
The LeaderThis last faculty is one of the most essential and elusive. The uncanny powers of a leader manifest themselves not so much in the hold he has on the masses as in his ability to dominate and almost bewitch a small group of able men. These men must be fearless, proud, intelligent and capable of organizing and running large-scale undertakings, and yet they must submit wholly to the will of the leader, draw their inspiration and driving force from him, and glory in this submission. Not all the qualities enumerated above are equally essential.
The most decisive for the effectiveness of a mass movement leader seem to be audacity, fanatical faith in a holy cause, an awareness of the importance of a close-knit collectivity, and, above all, the ability to evoke fervent devotion in a group of able lieutenants.
The True BelieverExamples
03DiscussionRelating the Material to the Present
What is “the crowd”
today? Where is it?
What is a “true believer”
in today’s terms?
01Technology
Social platforms as The Great Enabler, eliminating the need for physical proximity. Recommendation engines disrupting the maket for cult leaders as people self-select into ad hoc groups around particular issues.
Forces shaping crowds/true believers
02Political Structures
The resurgence of populism, the rise of non-political actors
Forces shaping crowds/true believers
03Axes of Alignment
religious vs secular
local vs global
protectionist impulses
Forces shaping crowds/true believers