Insti Parties and The Collective
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The 'mass' never ceases to amaze...the outcome of the collective can be so different from individual aspirations...in fact one can easily manipulate it to be so. Does the collective have a life of its own, impossible to derive from individual cogs (as complexity theorists would argue)?
Observing these insti parties is always so stimulating and instructive. (After this sentence, I know you've classified me as insane :-), it doesn't matter; the desire to understand, that's what brings me to all sorts of places)
Play the songs in a different order and the aggregate frenzy is of a different kind. Serve slightly different drinks (or slightly change the quantities) and the outcome of the collective is so very different. The volume of the music, the beats, the lighting, its stength or frequency of flicker... all variables one can utilise to tailor the mood of the collective. At what stage does the individual will cease to resist and give in to the communal without recourse to reason; in fact enjoys the surrender? When does the group become a single entity swayed by a handful of variables controlled by a cabal?
And then observing the individuals...how somebody works through the mass to reach out to a target....how the individual gets trapped into a course of action which he/she wouldn't ordinarily do, just to stay in a peer group...the amazing change in certain individuals as inebriation progresses...
I can go on and on about my observations and inferences...
The 'collective from individual' theme is everywhere, right from the high-end processors that power mankind's technology to the politics that supposedly facilitate the realising of human aspirations.
Understanding clearly how the collective arises from the individual is probably the first step in distinguishing a Gandhi from Hitler; not in hindsight after all is over, but when the hypnosis actually on.
The 'mass' never ceases to amaze...the outcome of the collective can be so different from individual aspirations...in fact one can easily manipulate it to be so. Does the collective have a life of its own, impossible to derive from individual cogs (as complexity theorists would argue)?
Observing these insti parties is always so stimulating and instructive. (After this sentence, I know you've classified me as insane :-), it doesn't matter; the desire to understand, that's what brings me to all sorts of places)
Play the songs in a different order and the aggregate frenzy is of a different kind. Serve slightly different drinks (or slightly change the quantities) and the outcome of the collective is so very different. The volume of the music, the beats, the lighting, its stength or frequency of flicker... all variables one can utilise to tailor the mood of the collective. At what stage does the individual will cease to resist and give in to the communal without recourse to reason; in fact enjoys the surrender? When does the group become a single entity swayed by a handful of variables controlled by a cabal?
And then observing the individuals...how somebody works through the mass to reach out to a target....how the individual gets trapped into a course of action which he/she wouldn't ordinarily do, just to stay in a peer group...the amazing change in certain individuals as inebriation progresses...
I can go on and on about my observations and inferences...
The 'collective from individual' theme is everywhere, right from the high-end processors that power mankind's technology to the politics that supposedly facilitate the realising of human aspirations.
Understanding clearly how the collective arises from the individual is probably the first step in distinguishing a Gandhi from Hitler; not in hindsight after all is over, but when the hypnosis actually on.
posted by Ayan Bhattacharya @ 1:00 PM
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