I looked up ochlophobia (a fear of mob-like crowds) and was relieved to find out it’s supposed to be irrational. Excellent. So I’m not psychotic after all.
Yes, I do detest mob-like crowds, and at times I’m even afraid of them. But that fear is perfectly rational, rooted in observation, experience and contemplation.
As a child, I was weaned on the tragic story of my cousin who was trampled to death by a football mob a year or two after I was born. My mother often told me to be especially careful to keep my footing when in a crowd. If I fell down, the crowd could walk all over me, just as it did over my 14-year-old cousin.
Then I grew up and saw crowds in action. Some action was benign, such as rallies or marches for good causes. Some was nasty, such as rallies or marches for bad causes. It didn’t take me long to realise that I hated the first almost as much as the second.
For any crowd is a sort of synergistic organism, except that, rather than being greater than the sum of its parts, it has nothing to do with the individuals making it up. It transcends individuality and therefore humanity.
A mob resembles a pack of wild animals more than any assembly of human beings made in the image and likeness of God. So they are, each on his own. But gather them together in a large crowd, and even God won’t know what they’ll get up to.
A single man, even not a particularly strong or intelligent one, is more impervious to manipulation than a crowd, even if made up of square-jawed holders of advanced degrees. The same mob can be rallied by a great idea today and an evil one tomorrow, displaying equal enthusiasm for both.
How many of those thousands listening agape to Jesus’s words screamed “Crucify him!” the very next day? How many loyal and enthusiastic subjects of Charles I, Louis XVI and Nicholas II cheered – nay demanded – their execution when evil men began to shriek evil slogans? How many good, stolid burghers, salt of the earth each one, left their Frauen and Kinder to scream themselves hoarse at Nuremberg rallies?
There have been many books written on crowd psychology, notably by Gustave Le Bon, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. I’ve read a few, but found nothing of what I hadn’t already either observed or figured out for myself. Those things that didn’t tally with my thoughts and experience I considered misguided – you decide whether this is comment on those books or my arrogance.
This is a preamble to a comment that I’m sure some people, especially conservatives, will find appalling. After all, many a pundit rejoiced at the sights of the explosive mass enthusiasm caused by Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee.
This was held as proof of intuitive monarchism residing at the grassroots of our green and pleasant land. Rather than being cynical materialists, the British people are always ready to salute the royal standard, kiss the Union Jack and shout their love for Queen and country (God has fallen out of that triad).
So they are. But the thought kept gnawing at the far recesses of my mind that, should the very same people be told that the monarchy is an offensive anachronism and they’d be much happier in a republic, they’d be just as enthusiastic – provided a charismatic enough character rallied them together in a herd-like mob.
This afternoon we walked the length of the lovely St James Park, from Horse Guards Parade to Buck House, alongside the Mall. The park, normally one of my favourite places in London, was today dominated by the aftermath of the celebratory pageantry.
There wasn’t much litter about – the cleaners must have been working overnight. Or perhaps there wasn’t enough room left for the litter, for the park was jam-packed with Portaloo cabins, hundreds of them, arranged in clusters of a dozen or so.
Verily I say unto you, the outpourings of affection for the Queen must have reached diluvian proportions. Penelope, her English mind drawn to the concrete rather than general, wondered what they did with all the stuff deposited in the cabins.
For once, I was stuck for a reply. Every possibility that crossed my mind was too grotesquely scatological to enunciate. I just winced, reminded yet again of the hairbreadth separating mob love from mob justice – or mob anything.
The more I love people, the more I hate crowds. Call it ochlophobia if you will (the Russophones among you will recognise the same Greek root in the word охломон, good-for-nothing). Call it anything you wish – but don’t call on me to join any crowd whatever.
Darwinists use mob behaviour as grist to their evolutionary mill.
No phobia here. We saw firsthand in the summer of 2020 how easily the “peaceful protestors” turned to hate-filled, vengeful, murderous mobs. As demonstrated in the eighth paragraph, such mobs are usually made up of ordinary citizens (though in 2020 most were started with dubious intent).
As an aside, if attendance at an event requires bodily functions be carried out in a Portaloo, then count me out.
Sorry to hear that. I was counting on you.
According to Eric Hoffer, people join mobs to escape their ruined individual identities.
And they have no individual identities, ruined or otherwise.
Jacques Ellul said that the “lonely man in the crowd” is the man most vulnerable to manipulation by propaganda. Muslims are commanded to always attend the largest or most attended mosque if there are two or more options available. I suspect that ochlophobia and islamophobia are related.
I never read Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung; too obtuse for me. Neither have I read Gustave Le Bon, but maybe I should. Is he worth the effort?
As a fellow ochlophobe , I concur with every word written here . Not too keen on concert going , or the AFL anymore especially as they are cashless and demanded the green tick to enter, and i have certainly lost faith and respect for my fellow man . Always reminded of a school of fish , thousands of units moving like one organism. What was that about the Frenchman sitting on his balcony , seeing a mob march down his street and proclaiming “I must find out what they’re protesting so i can lead them!” Some people (most?) are drawn to the mob for a false sense of belonging, a self-righteous streak , or for the pleasure of destroying property in the name of a cause and whenever photos of any recent protest are shown , the mob looks the same in all of them , no matter what the issue . I saw a photo the other day for “Queers against Nuclear energy” and the top of the flag had an “Abolish ICE” sign as well ! Like Brando’s character in “The wild one ” said when asked what he was protesting – “Whaddaya got”.
“The IQ of a mob is the IQ of its dumbest member divided by the number of mobsters.”
Commands by the police telling the mob to disperse have to be given in words of one letter [or less if possible].
Your essay reminds me of Elias Canetti’s brilliantly terrifying book, Crowds and Power. Anybody here who hasn’t read it ought to.