"Nobody can know in advance when an epic historical-geographic performance will be enacted, nor are there preconceived formulas for what makes a successful encounter. What is clear, however, is that any moment of encounter will likely be a process without a subject, spreading like wildfire, a moment in which crowds become speedy ensembles of bodies, rested via spontaneous online and offline ordering; participants will simultaneously act and react, in a human kaleidoscope in which joy and celebration, violence and wildness, tenderness and abandon somehow get defined."
— Andy Merrifield, from “Crowd Politics” (as excerpted in Harper’s this month).
