Webster's online dictionary defines crowd: to press on, to press close, to collect in numbers. It defines mob as a large or disorderly crowd, especially one bent on notorious or destructive action. Many times there are crowds and there is nothing disorderly about them. I can't help but think of the crowd that forms in Times Square, in New York City every New Years Eve. Most of the time everyone there is extremely well behaved. I heard that there were over 1,000,000 people jammed into the square for New Years Eve 2005, but I can't be sure. Let say the figure is accurate and see what that means. There were more than 3.3 times the entire population of the Bahamas in the square. The crowd was about the size of the population of East Timor and only slightly smaller that the entire population of the country of Estonia. It was about 40 times the size of the entire population of Gibraltar It was larger than the total populations of Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Macau, added together. It was over half the size of the population of Namibia and larger than 1/5 of the entire population of Norway. It was the mother of all crowds.

Crowd At Sporting Event
Photo Source: Clipart.com

Would you call an army a crowd? I don't think so, but it does have some of the elements. Many people are together in one small area when it is on the move. It may be very large but it is usually orderly, since it is under the command of officers. But when an army is routed and in full retreat it is more like a mob. Napoleon's Grand Army went into full retreat when it was trying to escape from Russia and only 10,000 made it from the original force of about 200,000.

In France, during the revolution, mobs and crowds both showed up in the streets of Paris. It is true that mostly they were mobs since they demanded blood and their main purpose was to hasten executions. The guillotine became a real mob pleaser. A mob followed behind the crusaders. This mob was out to get anything they could steal. There wasn't enough food for them and there are some records that state the mob actually resorted to cannibalism.

But as I said before, not all groups of people are mobs. Large numbers of people turn out for many reasons such as parades, sporting events, rallies of many different kinds and to get a glimpse of someone. Huge numbers of people turned out to view the body of Abraham Lincoln that was taken on a train on a 1,666 mile trip. This trip retraced the route that Lincoln's campaign train went on in 1861. When Lincoln's body was placed on display in New York City over 500,000 people waited in line to see it.

Mobs gathered in the streets of Spanish Harlem in 1967. Thousand of people upset with New York City's plan to rip down old housing to make room for high rise buildings began to rebel. People were attacked, streets blocked, stores broken into and general mob mentality took place. This was settled with the intervention of the mayor and community leaders.

Why do I talk so much about New York City? I guess it is because I know more about it than anywhere else, since I grew up there. You can find any situation there that exists almost anywhere else in the country. I guess this is because New York City is really composed of many different communities. If one takes a look at manhattan, they may only notice the tall buildings, but there are really many different neighborhoods. To illustrate what I am talking about one has to only look at Chinatown and Little Italy. These two communities are equivalent to stepping into different countries.

Crowd
Photo Source: Clipart.com

There is a book out that states that crowds of people are smarter than an elite few. I must take issue with this. I have worked with large groups of people and it seems to me that the crowd, as a group, is only as smart as the dumbest member. A good illustration of this is when a very large group is being moved. The crowd will usually all try and get on one elevator, no matter how many of them there are. Inevitably if you have to take a large group outside and walk them to another location a few blocks away and tell them they must stay together, you will get to your destination with at least one person less. These are just a couple of the reasons I can't agree with the book.

Every country has times when people turn out into the streets. It might be for a festival, or it might be for a funeral. It could be for a demonstration or a parade. But out we will go. We might not be happy with something on the job and picket a boss or we might just be at Disneyland. Crowds are a way of life and mobs, unfortunately, are too.