An agglomeration of many people can be called a crowd.
A crowd , from the Latin multitūdo , is the abundance and multitude of people or things . For example: “I tried to enter the stadium, but the crowd pushed me and I ended up hurt,” “A crowd gathered in front of the singer's house to greet him on his birthday.”
There are several concepts linked to the notion of crowd. A crowd is a multiplicity of subjects that act together to achieve a common objective: “A crowd filled the town square to demand the resignation of the mayor,” “The Argentine tennis player dedicated himself before a crowd that went to see the final of the tournament.” to the state of New York.”
Crowd, plebs, mass and other related concepts
The idea of plebs arose in Roman times to refer to those who were not patricians. The commoners, therefore, were part of the less privileged sectors of society .
The group of people who behave in a gregarious manner is known as the mass ( "A furious mass destroyed the city hall facilities" ), while the people are the total number of people in a nation or country ( "The people have expressed themselves in the urns” ).
Each of these terms (crowd, multitude, plebs, mass, people) has different meanings, so they are applied depending on the context. There are certain circumstances, however, where the use of one or the other concept is almost indistinct. “A crowd went to the airport to receive the champion team” or “A crowd went to the airport to receive the champion team” are phrases with a similar meaning and can be used to describe the same situation.
Crowd can be used as a synonym for multitude.
The ochlocracy
It is interesting, in addition to everything stated above, to establish the concept of ochlocracy . This is a term that was used by the Greek philosopher Aristotle to define what crowd rule was. For him this type of government was a way of degenerating what were traditional forms of government.
The fact that the aforementioned Hellenic thinker speaks out against or belittles the aforementioned type of government is fundamentally due to the fact that the crowd is identified as having an irrational, confused will and full of vices of a certain type.
The crowd and politics
In the same way, we must not overlook the fact that ochlocracy is often identified or confused with what has been called the tyranny of the majority . This tyranny is what develops when the masses use force to get the reigning political leaders at any given moment to make a series of absolutely inadequate decisions.
There are many thinkers who, throughout history, have raised their hypotheses about olocracy and democracy. Specifically, about how the latter could have degenerated into the other. One of those who has delved deeper into this was the Swiss writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who explained that this transition occurs as a consequence of various wills of a particular type being imposed on general ones. A fact that is the result of the development of a series of tricks or tricks of various types.