{Expressive and Active Crowds [continued][: Active Crowds]}[10th October 1990]

[Redbook8:18-19][19901010:1531b]{Expressive and Active Crowds [continued][: Active Crowds]}[10th October 1990]

.1531

[continued]

‘Active crowds.* The active crowd identifies some object or group of objects outside itself ** and proceeds to act directly upon it or them. It will brook no delay or interference, *** no discussion of the desirability of acting, and no dissent from its course of action. Because of the high pitch of crowd interaction, subtle and indirect courses of action cannot win crowd support, though members are highly suggestible to all proposals and examples for action in keeping with the mood and the object. The stage of transformation from shared mood to to shared action constitutes the beginning of the true crowd or mob.

‘The crucial feature of this stage is overcoming the barriers to such behaviour as the destruction of property **** or violence towards persons – actions against which most people have strongly ingrained inhibitions. Four aspects of the way crowd members feel about the situation make this possible.

#[‘]First, there is a sense of an exceptional situation in which a special moral code applies. The crowd merely carries further the justification for a special code of ethics incorporated in the slogan “You have to fight fire with fire!”#*

[‘]Second, there is a sense of power in the crowd, with its apparent determination and #** uniform will, that overcomes the individual’s doubts concerning his own ability to carry out a momentous task successfully.

[‘]Third, there is a sense of impunity, of safety from personal injury and punishment so long as the individual is on the side of the crowd.

[‘]And finally, there is a sense of inevitability – that the crowd aim will be accomplished regardless of the doubts and opposition of individuals.’

#***

*[See last previous entry]

**M~ (Outward Action)

***M~ (Right)

****M~→U~→A~

[Set out in downward order in the lower right quarter arc of the Circle, in the ms]

#[Paragraphing from here is added in the ts]

#*[sic]

#**M~

#***E[ncyclopaedia] B[ritannica] 16:611

(& see also rest of section, pp611-612,

eg re peak & decline; & conditions)

[continued]

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