- Winter 2022
Syllabus Description:
Pol S 310: Modern Political Thought
The Politics of Crowds
Winter 2022
Professor: Noga Rotem
T, Th 1:30-3:20
Office Hours (on zoom): Wed 12:30-2:30 pm, or by appointment
https://washington.zoom.us/j/2307576389
“The subjects must be kept apart. That is the first maxim of modern politics.”
(Jean Jacques Rousseau)
“Passion never fails to wrest the scepter from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob” (Federalist 55).
Three major political moments in the last two years revolved around political crowds: the pandemic has deprived us of (and presumably made us miss) the company of other people, in concert halls, marches, sports games, in crowded streets, festivals, movie theaters, etc. The racial justice protests in the summer of 2020 have displayed the great democratic promise of crowds; and the January 6th insurrection brought home the undemocratic and violent potential of crowds.
In this selective survey of Modern Political Thought we will try to make sense of these multiple faces of crowds by reading and discussing political thinkers who studied crowds as either a problem to worry about, or as democracy’s greatest asset, or as both.
Modernity is certainly, among other things, the age of the crowd. The 19th century saw the emergence of the new science of “mass psychology” which responded to the emergence of the masses since the French and Haitian revolutions. Crowd theorists saw the crowd as dangerous, hysterical, as dissolving individuality, as unruly, or, alternatively, as given over to the leader. While these theorists saw in the crowd a great threat to democracy and to the rule of law, others (or sometimes the very same thinkers, in different contexts), however, saw miraculous moments in these spontaneous gatherings – instances of public joy, and sources of democratic and revolutionary hope. How can we account for that disparity?
We will ask, further: what distinguishes the violent mob from the democratic crowd? What drives people to take to the streets (or: what does the crowd want)? What kind of emotions (also known as affects) do the people of the crowd share (rage? sympathy? pity? joy?) and why does it matter? What is the bodily experience of being in a crowd? What happens to the agency of subjects in crowds? What do actual historical events and movements in modernity (such as the American, French, Haitian, Iranian and Egyptian revolutions, the Algerian War, the feminist movement) teach us about the political promises and dangers of crowds?
We will read canonical modern texts by Edmund Burke, Hannah Arendt, C.L.R James, Frantz Fanon, Michele Foucault and others. The class consists of two main units: the first, “The Phenomenology and Choreography of Crowds” will focus on the bodily experience of being in a crowd and on the crowd’s form and movement and their political importance. And the second unit, “From Crowd to People: The Age of Revolution” will look at the major historical revolutions that took place in modernity, focusing on the revolution as a moment of founding where the crowd or the mob becomes a people.
This class focuses on modernity in two complementary levels: it reads modern (and some contemporary) political thinkers, and, it also discusses works that respond to modern historical events. This is thus an opportunity not only to read modern political thought, but also to see how political theory is very much grounded in the world and responds to the political events of the time.
Course requirements include active participation, four discussion posts and two short papers.
Schedule:
*=on canvas
T Jan 4
Introduction and course overview
Th Jan 6
Read: Making Sense of the Mob Mentality The NY Times*
Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd: a Study of the Popular Mind, Chapter 1*
Bring to class: One news article discussing the Jan 6 2021 insurrection, preferably, with reference to the crowd/mob
ONE: The Phenomenology and Choreography of Crowds
T Jan 11:
Elias Canetti, Crowds and Power, pp. 15-30, 303-311*
Th Jan 13:
Watch 20 minutes from CROWDS by filmmaker and choreographer Sarah Friedland
Read: “Murmurations: A Conversation Between Sarah Friedland and Tess Takahashi on CROWDS”
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition pp. 7-9
Film and “Murmurations” can be found here:
Link: www.watchcrowds.com
username: UWlibrary
password: watchcrowds
T Jan 18
NO CLASS: A make-up session will be scheduled to exam period (optional).
Th Jan 20
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, pp. 175-207, 236-247*
Tu Jan 25
James Martel “The magic of matter: bodies, together and apart in a time of pandemic,” pp. 1-4*
Judith Butler, Performative Theory of Assembly. “Introduction,” chapter 1 pp. 7-23, Chapter 2 (selections)*
TWO: From Crowds to People: The Age of Revolution
Th Jan 27:
Arendt, On Revolution: pp. 11-25, 37-51, 80-88, 99-105; (chapter 1: sections 1-3, 5; chapter 2: first 3 paragraphs; sections 4, 6).
Tu Feb 1
Arendt, On Revolution, chapter 4
Recommended: Jason Frank, “Sympathy and Separation: Benjamin Rush and the Contagious Public,” in: Constituent Moments*
Th Feb 3
Read: Edmund Burke, Reflections On the Revolution in France (89-91, 106, 117-138)
Recommended: Lori Marso, “Defending the Queen”
Tu Feb 8
Edmund Burke, Reflections On the Revolution in France (159-179, 183-184, 194-195)
Edmund Burke. Excerpts from Warren Hasting’s impeachment Trial.*
Rob Goodman, “Edmund Burke Could Help with Impeachment,” The Atlantic, September 2019
Th Feb 10
Watch (in class): PBS documentary: Egalite for All: Toussaint Louverture & The Haitian Revolution
C.L.R James, The Black Jacobins (preface; prologue; 6-26)
Recommended: listen to the “15 Minute History” podcast about the Haitian Revolution
Tu Feb 15
The Black Jacobins: 85-96; 103-120; 124-126; 146-156; 194-198
Recommended: David Scott Conscripts of Modernity, chapter 2*
Th Feb 17
The Black Jacobins: 280-292; 370-377
Tu Feb 22:
Watch (in class): “The Battle of Algiers”
Th Feb 24
Frantz Fanon Wretched of the Earth (selections)*
Tu Mar 1
Foucault: “Iran: the Spirit of a World without Spirit” and “The Mythical Leader of the Iranian Revolt”*
Th Mar 3
Watch (in class): The Square: The Egyptian Revolution
Tu Mar 8
Read: Magda Boutros, “Place and Tactical Innovation in Social Movements: The Emergence of Egypt’s Anti-Harassment Groups”*
Guest in class: Professor Magda Boutros, Sociology Department, UW
Tu Mar 10
Bonnie Honig, “Care and Concern: Arendt and Winnicott,” in: Public Things 37-57*