Word: canetti
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...noise of destruction adds to its satisfaction," Elias Canetti notes in Crowds and Power. "The banging of windows and smashing of glass are the robust sounds of fresh life, the cries of something newborn." In Detroit, they proved to be-with the rattling of gunfire-the sounds of death. Throughout the Detroit riot there was-as in Newark-a spectacularly perverse mood of gaiety and light-hearted abandon in the mob-a "carnival spirit," as a shocked Mayor Cavanagh called it, echoing the words used by New Jersey's Governor Richard Hughes after he toured stricken Newark three weeks...
Recently published in England, Crowds and Power impressed all critics with its erudition, dazzled some into superlatives, and numbed others. Like Spengler, Toynbee and other sweeping theorists, Canetti casts a net over all of human history and tends to describe the entire sea from what he finds...
...human body, according to Canetti, bristles with power. The most innocent-seeming gesture recalls the primitive seizing and devouring of prey. "The hand's real glory derives from the grip," writes Canetti, "the central and most often celebrated act of power." The hard, unyielding rows of teeth resemble smoothly polished stone weapons, and in an open mouth often appear menacing. Even the way a person sits in a chair may reveal whether he is, at heart, gripping a throne or a horse or another human being.' Canetti has small patience for those who think man's basic...
Killing for Equality. Man's lust for power is given freest rein in a crowd. A crowd, for Canetti, is the basic unit of human society, akin to many things in nature: a contagious fire, an all-embracing sea, an immovable forest of trees, boundless sand. Men join crowds to escape the restrictions of life and the sense of isolation from others; the crowd provides a short-lived but deeply felt equality and companionship. "Stepping out of everything which binds, encloses and burdens them is the real reason for the elation which people feel in a crowd," writes Canetti...
...crowds in the raw behave much the same, Canetti argues, whether they form for feasts, funerals, rebellions or lynchings. They have a demoniacal urge to grow and an equally demoniacal urge to battle an opposing crowd. Rummaging through history, Canetti cites some gory examples of crowd behavior to support his thesis. Crowds that form for the most exalted reasons can become the most murderous. Typical was an Easter service in Jerusalem in 1834. The faithful flocked to the church by the thousands to see the descent of the Holy Fire. When the "miraculous" fire appeared, people were in a frenzy...