The Last Cosmopolitan: Elias Canetti’s 20th Century

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29 pointsapollinaire4 comments

>Crowds and Power, his 1960 magnum opus, captures his wide-ranging scope: Prompted by the mass politics of the early 20th century, it considered how crowds, throughout human history, have needed no leader to exist, to grow, and to become powerful.

Wouldn't normally have been part of my 'reading diet' but I truly cannot recommend Crowds and Power enough. Less scholarly in tone than you'd expect (in fact, it's hugely readable), it is a really captivating book.

Religious organization of crowds:

"The faithful are gathered together at appointed places and times, and through performances which are always the same, they are transported into a mild state of crowd feeling sufficient to impress itself on them without becoming dangerous, and to which they grow accustomed. Their feeling of unity is dispensed to them in doses and the continuance of the church depends on the rightness of the dosage." p. 25

Thanks for the recommendation.

I quite like Canetti's Die Blendung, so I might also have a look at his non-fiction soon.

https://archive.ph/e6bUp

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