In 1895, Gustave Le Bon wrote that “the individual forming part of a crowd acquires, solely from numerical considerations, a sentiment of invincible power.”
A crowd is a powerful creature, and it can facilitate incredible behavior. However, a crowd can also bring down the individual IQs of its members, leading them to collectively conduct themselves in an appalling or ridiculous manner. One of the most frustrating things crowds have a tendency to do is chant.
On Tuesday evening, after it was announced that Republican Karen Handel would win Georgia’s 6th District, the crowd at Democrat Jon Ossoff’s campaign watch party began a call-and-response chant:
“[Tell] me what democracy looks like? This is what democracy looks like.”
Here’s the thing about chanting — it serves no purpose other than to gratify the self; it’s a sort of internal virtue signaling. Chanting accomplishes nothing of substance. Rather, it allows an individual to feel powerful and righteous. By repeating a set of words at high volume with a group of like-minded individuals, a single person can be larger than themselves; one man can be a giant. Although such a sense of oneness must be a feast for the narcissistic brain, chanting alone advances no material cause, and it drives no material change. It is entirely masturbatory, and only slightly less lazy than slacktivism.
That said, here are five of the most insipid and grotesque chants from recent years:
1. “Hands up, don’t shoot.” This chant — one that parroted a patently false narrative that Michael Brown was a “gentle giant” who was gunned down by a racist white police officer as he was peacefully surrendering — allowed progressive politicians, commentators, and sports figures alike to display their beautiful righteousness for the world to see.
2. “Lock her up” was one of the Trump crowd’s favorite calls. Indeed, yelling “lock her up” every time Donald Trump mentioned Hillary Clinton’s name at one of his rallies really did the trick. Justice was served, and Clinton has been duly prosecuted for her crimes. JK, it just gave Trump supporters a hit of moral heroin.
3. “Pigs in a blanket; fry em like bacon!” This Black Lives Matter chant was wonderfully effective because it allowed participants to state their displeasure regarding police officers (the aforementioned “pigs”), and recommend a punishment (frying them as if they were bacon). It really advanced the cause in a meaningful fashion, and was in no way self-stimulatory.
4. “What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want them? Now!” Similar to “pigs in a blanket,” if marginally less creative, this lovely chant conveys the simple fact that every single police officer is evil, privileged, and deserving of death. One must wonder, however, if those who engaged in the chant will still want cops dead “now” the next time they’re being robbed at gunpoint, or their home has been invaded.
5. “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” Wow. This is the pinnacle of chanting. If there were a contest to determine the most creative and persuasive chant, this would win hands down…hands up? In fact, after the Women’s March at which this rallying cry was repeated over and over again, President Trump decided that his detractors were right, and that he should step down. Ok, that didn’t happen — but, it was surely gratifying for the protesters to hear words coming from their own mouths on repeat.
In conclusion, chanting does nothing! In conclusion, chanting does nothing! In conclusion, chanting does nothing! In conclusion, chanting does nothing!
So stop it.