{"id":26924,"date":"2017-01-25T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T11:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=26924"},"modified":"2017-01-24T19:17:31","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T00:17:31","slug":"the-problem-with-crowds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/01\/the-problem-with-crowds\/","title":{"rendered":"The problem with crowds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"512px-Flickr_-_moses_namkung_-_The_Crowd_For_DMB_1\"<\/a>In a column in which he explains why he didn\u2019t go to the Inauguration, Jonah Goldberg says that it wasn\u2019t because he is a conservative never-Trumper. \u00a0He says that also doesn\u2019t like to go to sporting events or arena concerts. \u00a0He just\u00a0doesn\u2019t like crowds. \u00a0But from there he raises some bigger points: \u00a0Crowds can become mobs. \u00a0The unit of American politics is the individual, not the crowd. \u00a0The experience of being in a crowd is losing one\u2019s individuality in a bigger corporate unity. \u00a0And then he quotes Christian writer Eugene Peterson on how some people seek religious transcendence through the \u201cecstasy of the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Read what the excerpt says after the jump.\u00a0 How might this apply, say, to megachurches? \u00a0Isn\u2019t it true that some\u2013not all, I hasten to say\u2013have worship services that try to stir\u00a0up the \u201cecstasy of the crowd\u201d?<\/p>\n

From Jonah Goldberg, Donald Trump\u2019s Inauguration, Calvin Coolidge & the Unwisdom of Crowds | National Review<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t like crowds. I don\u2019t trust them. Good things rarely come from them. Not all crowds are mobs, but all mobs start as crowds, and I\u2019m a little allergic to the vibrations within in them. The heroic unit in the American political tradition is the individual, not the mob. The crowd is what makes the cult of personality a thing. Without the crowd, it\u2019s just a person.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I ran across this quote recently from the pastor and author Eugene Peterson.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Classically, there are three ways in which humans try to find transcendence \u2014 religious meaning \u2014 apart from God as revealed through the cross of Jesus: through the ecstasy of alcohol and drugs, through the ecstasy of recreational sex, through the ecstasy of crowds. Church leaders frequently warn against the drugs and the sex, but at least, in America, almost never against the crowds. . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Elias Canetti notes in his book Crowds and Power that inside the crowd, \u201cdistinctions are thrown off and all become equal. It is for the sake of this blessed moment, when no one is greater or better than another, that people become a crowd.\u201d \u201cBut,\u201d Canetti adds, \u201cthe crowd, as such, disintegrates. It has a presentiment of this and fears it.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0Only the growth of the crowd prevents those who belong to it from creeping back under their private burdens.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By Moses (The Crowd For DMB 1) [CC BY 2.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a column in which he explains why he didn\u2019t go to the Inauguration, Jonah Goldberg says that it wasn\u2019t because he is a conservative never-Trumper. \u00a0He says that also doesn\u2019t like to go to sporting events or arena concerts. \u00a0He just\u00a0doesn\u2019t like crowds. \u00a0But from there he raises some bigger points: \u00a0Crowds can become […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,37,39],"tags":[5156,4489,5158,1422,5157],"class_list":["post-26924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-psychology","category-religions","tag-crowds","tag-eugene-peterson","tag-individual","tag-megachurches","tag-mobs"],"yoast_head":"\nThe problem with crowds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In explaining why he didn't go to the Inauguration--or sporting events, or big concerts--Jonah Goldberg says he just doesn't like crowds. 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