Going against the flow : faces in the crowd

Can we still think for ourselves?

DISPONIBLE EN FRANÇAIS ICI

Today’s post shares a crowd story and a photograph.

I was born the second child in a family of six, so there always seemed to be a small crowd of people there as I was growing up. I didn’t really experience loneliness until I left home.

I’m sure you have a first crowd story to tell. My own dates back to when I was a kid on a Saturday afternoon shopping expedition accompanying my father through a busy department store. It was stressful because, not only was I surrounded by strangers – I remember thinking I didn’t recognise anyone at all – I also had no idea why we were there, what we were looking for and why there were so many people in one place in what seemed to be a form of collective madness.

Yes, crowds can be unsettling. They can also be uplifting. In a world which where today populism¹ is very often the dish of the day which is served to ordinary citizens to feed our rejection of the ideas of the ruling minority of perceived elites or enemies, we are constantly being asked to declare which crowd we are members of. To say nothing of life online where the invitation to click or share to show our approval or disapproval is so difficult to resist.

Can we still tell the difference between what is uplifting and what is unsettling? Or do we just follow the crowd? Can we still think for ourselves? Or are we really just lost in the crowd of some busy department store, not really sure what we are looking for or what to buy?

Types of crowd

Anne Templeton² distinguishes between two types of crowd : physical crowds made up of multiple bodies sharing the same space, and psychological crowds made of people with a shared sense of identity.

Physical crowds can make us feel uncomfortable, especially if they are forced upon us. They can be unpleasant during rush hour travel, at big supermarkets on weekends, or any time when you can’t reach your destination because the flow of people gets blocked for some reason. We often do our best to avoid physical crowds but, if we have no choice, we prefer to endure them for the shortest time necessary, visualising the moment when we will finally be able to have some space of our own again.

A physical crowd can also be reassuring. Being part of one can make us feel safe and give us a sense of belonging. In some countries, like India, physical crowds are such a given of everyday life – as this album from Getty Images shows – that even visitors have to learn to live with the closeness and density of constant company.

Psychological crowds are different. We join them out of a sense of affinity, we are more likely to speak to strangers we meet there, and we’re happy being in the close physical company of like-minded people. According to Templeton : “at a fundamental movement level, psychological crowds will walk slower and further in order to keep close formation with fellow crowd members.”³

In a psychological crowd you are happy to rub shoulders with the person next to you as you share a musical moment in a packed concert hall, the expression of joy on a teeming dancefloor, or the passion of a mass march to defend a cause you believe in. Crowdfunding on line has given shape to a new form of digital psychological crowd created to finance an idea or a project and made up of individuals who will probably never physically meet.

Breaking free from the crowd

But what happens when somebody breaks free from a crowd of whatever sort and takes their own path? They step outside the group and take a different direction. How do we see that person?

Here’s a picture which made me answer that very question as it took me unexpectedly into a whole crowd of thoughts which I had not encountered before.

Take a look at the photo.

Here is someone coming purposefully towards you. He seems to be looking you in the eye. Unless that is just a coincidence provoked by the fact you’re looking at him. Try looking away, then look back. Well? Still looking. And getting closer.

What can he want? He seems determined. Does he think you have something he needs? Or does he want to give you something he has?

What could that be? Maybe a package, or a simply a message just for you. If you know the password, that is. The password? Oh yes. Be careful. If you don’t know the password, there could be consequences.

What makes him stand out ? With the exception of the young woman in sunglasses behind him, everyone else you can see is walking in the opposite direction.

Then there’s his walk. He walks the walk : he knows where he’s going. Some people have it, others pretend to have it, but he definitely walks the walk.

What’s in that right hand of his? Difficult to say. Unless it’s just a closed and empty hand. That wouldn’t be worrying if not for the look in his eye. And that swagger. Is he some underworld figure out to defend his reputation? Or an aging celebrity wondering if someone like you still recognises him? Or just somebody who thinks differently?

Anyway, he’s getting closer. You can almost hear his breathing. Maybe a doctor would detect a slight wheezing. Is he a dying man on his last legs about to utter his final words? Or someone following the glimmer of something new?

As you are watching all this, a voice calls out. It belongs to the woman in sunglasses behind him. He stops, waits for her to catch up, they nod to each other, then walk past you – together. He gives you a nod in passing. And they are gone.

What now? Go with the flow and follow the crowd? Or follow the couple who just walked past you? Or go your own way? The moment is over, but the picture stays with you.

Going against the flow

This picture was intially published by photographer and film-maker Alejandro Diez whose narrative ability always draws me in.⁴

In his original publication on Facebook, the photographer quotes a version of Malcolm Muggeridge‘s famous observation : “Never forget only dead fish swim with the stream.”⁵ This quote is usually taken to mean that life is about taking risks and having the courage not to follow the crowd. Does this mean that going against the flow is proof that we are still alive? Well, Alejandro Diez adds his own comment to Muggeridge‘s quote : “Sometimes it feels like we’re going in the opposite direction.”⁶

Finding yourself straying from the safety of the crowd and going against the flow can be a lonely experience. If we were able to watch ourselves doing it, I suspect we would look something like the man in the photograph. 

And I can hear a question repeating in his head, which he has passed on to me, and which I now pass on to you :

Can we still think for ourselves?

Still want more?

Try the mind-opening crowds exhibition entitled Comme des moutons? (Are we really like sheep?) at Quai des Savoirs Science Museum, Toulouse, which runs until 2 November 2025.

If you can’t get to Toulouse, there is the crowd-written Crowd page on Wikipedia which is permanently available and constantly changing.

On the thinking angle, a post called Have we stopped thinking? by Phillip Berry is worth a look.

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1. The online Encyclopedia Britannica has an informative page on Populism – history, facts, examples. ↩︎
2. Social psychologist at the University of Edinburgh, member of the Identities and Collective Behaviour research group. ↩︎
3. Quoted in The secret science that rules crowds. ↩︎
4. Alejandro Diez also inspired a previous post available here ↩︎
5. Diez, who is from Argentina, gives the quote in Spanish : Solo los peces muertos siguen la corriente. ↩︎
6. His original comment in Spanish : A veces da la sensación de que vamos en la dirección contraria. ↩︎