Watch the Crowd Stalk Its Prey

Gene Wolfe writes in The Shadow of the Torturer: "A crowd is not the sum of the individuals who compose it. Rather it is a species of animal, without language or real consciousness, born when they gather, dying when they depart."

I like that, and I kind of like to think that politics work this way. They are sort of non-physical crowd that has formed but has no real consciousness and though formed of people, it is not a manifestation representative of those people but a separate entity that the people are a part of but intellectually separate from.

 

Religion too can work this way. And yet my favorite saint, Saint Francis de Sales, convinced thousands upon thousands of Calvinists to return to the Catholic Church by the complete opposite argument. His basic idea was this: the Church is composed of its people and staying with the Church and voicing your dissent keeps the Church a stronger unified body working to change itself and improve instead of the Church breaking down into smaller weaker groups. He was operating in the 16th Century, and his belief was the strength and goodness of the people redeemed the Church against the corruption of its leaders at that time.

 

Saint Francis de Sales argument is compelling, and there is a certain strength in a unified body that is willing to self-evaluate and make change, but is it really possible for that sort of group consciousness and self-awareness? Gene Wolfe's character Severian would say it isn't because he sees the crowd for a mindless beast.

 

I think Severian is right. Humans are social creatures (whether or not the American Dream tells us we earn things independently by our own hard effort). We conform to the crowd and lose ourselves within it.

 

So take some time today to look at your crowds, whether they be political, religious, or otherwise, and really think hard on your own independent views. Voice your dissent. Be outspoken. Ensure that your crowd exercises self-awareness, self-evaluation, and the flexibility to change for the better. Don't let it get sucked into tradition as if history alone makes something good and equitable.