ABSTRACT
We open this chapter with the case of a protracted global campaign, accompanied by hundreds or even thousands of mass meetings and demonstrations. Crowds have often been associated with pent-up emotions, excessive behavior, and violence. Yet here, too, these were the exception rather than the rule. How should we understand these occasional transgressions? Psychologists have proposed the so-called “deindividuation” theory; sociologists have proposed the so-called “convergence” theory. But what are the metaprinciples that underlie both? They are the principles of processes beginning to run parallel; the principles of synergy and rhythm, of synchronization and resonance. Resistance fades, and boosting emerges.
