Plough My Account Sign Out
My Account
    View Cart

    Subtotal: $

    Checkout
    black and white image of a crowd of people

    Against the Crowd

    By Søren Kierkegaard

    May 19, 2017
    3 Comments
    3 Comments
    3 Comments
      Submit
    • Rick Shafer

      And yet most of the Bible was written for 'a people'. The Old Testament was written for a nation. And the New Testament was written for churches that together make up the Church. The Church (and churches) possess both truth and untruth. But God has chosen us to be 'a people' in Christ. And so we are.

    • Vincent Scott

      Discipleship happens 1 on 1- life on life. Groupthink is the enemy of intellect.

    • Jeremiah Obi

      What is the crowd? Who makes up the crowd? If there is no truth within the crowd, how can the individuals that make up the crowd be saved?

    We warn young people against going to dens of iniquity, even out of curiosity, because no one knows what might happen. Still more terrible, however, is the danger of going along with the crowd. In truth, there is no place, not even one most disgustingly dedicated to lust and vice, where a human being is more easily corrupted than in the crowd.

    Even though every individual possesses the truth, when he or she gets together in a crowd, untruth will be present at once, for the crowd is untruth. It either produces impenitence and irresponsibility or it weakens the individual’s sense of responsibility by placing it in a fractional category. For instance, imagine an individual walking up to Christ and spitting on him. No human being would ever have the courage or the audacity to do that. But as part of a crowd, well then they somehow have the “courage” to do it – dreadful untruth!

    The crowd is indeed untruth. Christ was crucified because he would have nothing to do with the crowd (even though he addressed himself to all). He did not want to form a party, an interest group, a mass movement, but wanted to be what he was, the truth, which is related to the single individual. Therefore everyone who will genuinely serve the truth is by that very fact a martyr. To win a crowd is no art; for that only untruth is needed, nonsense, and a little knowledge of human passions. But no witness to the truth dares to get involved with the crowd. His work is to be involved with all people, if possible, but always individually, speaking with each and every person on the sidewalk and on the streets – in order to split apart. He avoids the crowd, especially when it is treated as authoritative in matters of the truth or when its applause, or hissing, or balloting are regarded as judges. He avoids the crowd with its herd mentality more than a decent young girl avoids the bars on the harbor. Those who speak to the crowd, coveting its approval, those who deferentially bow and scrape before it must be regarded as being worse than prostitutes. They are instruments of untruth.

    For this reason, I could weep, even want to die, when I think about how the public, with its daily press and anonymity, make things so crazy. That an anonymous person, by means of the press, day in and day out can say whatever he wants to say, what he perhaps would never have the courage to say face-to-face as an individual to another individual, and can get thousands to repeat it, is nothing less than a crime – and no one has responsibility! What untruth! Such is the way of the crowd.


    From Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Søren Kierkegaard.

    black and white image of a crowd of people
    Contributed By SorenKierkegaard Søren Kierkegaard

    Søren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic, and spiritual writer.

    Learn More
    3 Comments
    You have ${x} free ${w} remaining. This is your last free article this month. We hope you've enjoyed your free articles. This article is reserved for subscribers.

      Already a subscriber? Sign in

    Try 3 months of unlimited access. Start your FREE TRIAL today. Cancel anytime.

    Start free trial now