The Madness of Crowds
We’ve all experienced the “madness of crowds” somewhere along the way. Just find a TSA line at O’Hare with expectant springbreakers and a two-hour-plus wait time, and you’ll get a fresh taste! If you get a group of people frustrated enough, or angry enough, or happy and excited enough, truly unprecedented outcomes can result.
Perhaps you’ve found yourself screaming at referees in a crowded stadium…and you’re not prone to verbal outburst. Or maybe you’ve found yourself singing at the top of your lungs at a Taylor Swift show… and you don’t even sing in the shower. Such is the madness of the crowds.
“The Madness of Crowds” is a classic phrase that describes the phenomenon where large groups of people adopt irrational, herd-like behaviors, and leave behind their individual reason for collective hysteria or delusion. The “madness of crowds” describes how emotionally-charged beliefs spread rapidly, causing individuals - and then a society or culture by extension - to behave in ways contrary to evidence or logic.
For example, before there was Bitcoin, there was the “South Sea Bubble” — aka “Tulipomania” —which occurred in 1720 related to the irrational increase in the price of tulip bulbs of all things.
This massive financial crisis in the Netherlands and Great Britain was triggered by the rapid inflation and subsequent crash of the South Sea Company's stock, which soared to over 100 times its value over a six-month period before collapsing later that year.
On a deeper level than economics, the madness of crowds is most frequently expressed in an “Us versus Them” mentality that manifests in maximalist, even violent terms. Our current state of American politics where the most vocal devotees of both the “Red Team” and the “Blue Team” truly loathe the members of the other team (and especially their leaders).
Jesus also experienced the madness of crowds.
Initially on Palm Sunday, Jesus was the seeming beneficiary of the “Us versus Them” mentality that Judeans had for their Roman overlords. When Jesus rode into town, the native crowd was truly hyped by the idea that the Messiah was coming to change things up! They were right, of course, but also delusional! It turns out that God’s agenda did a very poor job of conforming to their agenda (and how often could the same be said for you and me).
In short order, the crowd flipped on Jesus and it became an “Us versus Him” situation. The dam of decades worth of frustration at Roman injustices were unleashed on the only person who truly didn’t deserve it.
But Jesus came to heal and forgive everybody and to make all things new. That includes our personal and peculiar sins, failures, and foibles. And it extends to our societal and cultural failing, our systemic evils, even the madness of crowds. With unfathomable courage, Jesus said from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they’re doing!”
Yes and Amen. I don’t know what I’m doing much of the time! Collectively, has there ever been an age when our technology (just to take one example) is so quickly outpacing our understanding of how to use it! Now, more than ever, we need Jesus. To receive him. To remember him. To watch and wait for him. This is the week—the Holy Week—to do exactly that. I pray you find a way to do just that!
– Pastor Gregg