The Psychology of Crowds

 In this political season in the United States, we have watched television and print reports about a large number of rallies, both Democratic and Republican.  There is a kind of "mob psychology" that overtakes large crowds, an upwelling of energies that infects people who then say and do things they would never say and do were they alone or with a few others.  Most people singly can sort truth from fiction and stand on the side of truth.  At a rally and, frighteningly, for a long time after some people who cheer lies begin to believe them.  Their infection lingers.

We saw this especially in 2016 when ordinary folk chanted "Lock Her Up" when Hillary Clinton's name was mentioned. These same people, were they to meet face-to-face with the capable, intelligent, experienced Hillary Clinton, would be struck dumb and certainly not moved to hang her.  More likely they would turn and run.

Or the mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, that built gallows even before they chanted loud and long "HANG MIKE PENCE!"  Few doubt that had Vice-President Pence been captured, the mob would have hung him.

Anyone who has ever attended a hockey game understands this upwelling of crazed energies that can lend itself to fights in the rink as well as in the stands.  That kind of unleashed energies, while wild and frenzied, lacks the lasting influence of energies that break through some of our most cherished collective beliefs, for example, our belief and love of personal freedoms.  Energies so powerful they push aside all checks on them are exceedingly dangerous and threaten all of us.  Politicians who feed that level of uncivilized, unchecked energies are particularly lacking in some critical human value themselves, so much so that they call up and amplify those energies themselves, an incredibly irresponsible act.  

The world saw this happen in Germany in the 1930's.  Once unleashed, destructive energies were very difficult to contain again.  By the end of WWII, the entire world, especially Germans, was sick to death of the horrors, the deaths, the destruction.  We are seeing a much lesser replay in Ukraine today, one that so far is contained to a small part of the world by civilized forces that are standing up to another dangerous dictator.  We cannot afford for the world to have another powerful dictator, unchecked by values critical to civilized society.

C.G. Jung (1875-1961) warned again and again about mob mentality and the dangers mobs are to all of us.    The psychology he left behind is one that, properly understood and practiced, can provide individuals the strength to withstand and contain uncivilized energies that break through from time to time.