The Fadness of Crowds
Atlanta, GA
April 9, 2023
It’s said that when a man enters a crowd, he exits civilization. A man in a mob doesn’t think for himself; the mob thinks for him. For evidence, we summon recent reckless reactions to viruses, riots, wars, and the weather.
As new “crises” roll out like beer bottles from an assembly line, everyone is expected to immediately coalesce around one approved opinion. Anyone doubting what “everyone” believes is dismissed or denounced.
Epithets displace debate. Dissenters are summarily silenced or quickly condemned. In many cases, healthy skepticism costs careers, ruptures relationships, or results in veritable severance from respectable society.
Within the last half decade, large swaths of the country…whose opinions were almost universal ten minutes earlier…suddenly became “racists”, “fascists”, “white supremacists”, or “science deniers” for daring to doubt some stylish secular sacrament.
But horde hysteria is nothing new. It has a long lineage, as we were again reminded during this sacred week.
Today concludes the holiest period on the Christian calendar. It started when a crowd greeted Christ by waving palms, and ended after another one (comprising many of the same people) had Him nailed to a cross.
Being pack animals, the multitudes mindlessly abided their leaders, and blindly supported “the latest thing.” They followed the fad and went with the flow. Like teenagers tossing weed from the car while being chased by the cops, when the rubber meets the road courage and conviction usually go out the window.
At Palm Sunday Mass last week, our priest asked the congregation an incriminating question: are we the type to wave palms on Sunday, and then demand crucifixion on Friday? Or, when the going gets tough, would we stand our ground and retain our faith?
Before we smugly respond from the safe harbor of hindsight and hypotheticals, we should recall that even St. Peter thrice decided to betray Our Lord to appease the mob. And that was just hours after he swore (to Jesus’s face!) he’d never deny his love for Christ.
In the heat of the moment, most people melt. The Nazis, Stasis, and Soviets recruited their guards, snitches, and goons from fertile ranks of common folk.
And, more often than human nature might care to confess, they didn’t require much coercion to convince the conscripts. Most of the recruits probably thought they’d “volunteered.” Many actually did.
Would we have enlisted in these nefarious gangs? Under implicit threats from a totalitarian state, and public pressure from the last refuge of scoundrels, who among us would’ve had the guts to say no?
Why would we? The majority at the time didn’t. And many who didn’t say “yes” were probably spared the dilemma by never being “asked.”
Even as rumors or proof of their government’s atrocities spread, most still stayed silent. It was easier (and certainly safer) to obey with the multitudes than to defy alone. They echoed their predecessors in front of Pilate, who found it more convenient to release Barabbas than to spare Christ.
Can we blame them? Well, yes. Each of us is responsible for anything we do. But we should exercise caution before casting a stone. In the silence of their souls…in the dark of night or on the cusp of death…many of those “average Germans” and “regular Russians” no doubt censured themselves. But, in more cases than we’d care to admit, they’d be able to do the same to us if roles were reversed.
In their shoes, what makes us think we would’ve walked another way? The last few years, under much less dire circumstances, most of our “normal“ neighbors unflinchingly followed orders and got in line. Many of them are still there, queuing up for the next dose of their prescribed perspective.
Popularity is a powerful potion. Shifting with sentiment, the majority will abruptly switch welcoming palms for crowns of thorns.
Like any era, ours is complicit in carnage of which it’ll never be able to wash its hands. Who among us can deny the Mississippi of sins for which our own descendants could hold our generations to account?
Still…regardless which way the wind blows…most of us are decent, and aspire to be the type person other people want to make proud. We’re all human, with our inherent faults and innate flaws. Sometimes, even if we withstand pressure from the masses, we can’t resist instinctive impulses within ourselves.
In crowds or alone, we trip up and fall down. It’s easy to slip on wet leaves when wandering the perilous pavement of troublesome temptations or ingrained habit. That is, after all, why Christ came. To pick us up and clear our path.
And we shouldn’t feel guilty about being tempted. We should feel relief. Siren songs have silver linings. As opposed to base animal instinct, human temptation requires a spiritual conscience, and an ability to resist. As St John Vianney said, the Devil tempts only those souls that wish to abandon sin or that are in a state of grace. The others already belong to him. He has no need to tempt them.
This week reminds us what matters most, of the Faith we proclaim and priorities we should set. But prodded by promises and egged on by the crowd, we’re eager and impatient. We want the glory of the Resurrection without the pain of the Passion. But perspective is gained when we expand our horizon.
“There are”, CS Lewis said, “a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live forever.” On the edge of infinity, all is clarified: things are either very important…or not important at all.
Today, with the crowds thinned and the tomb empty, the world recognizes which is which.
Happy Easter.
JD
