Parrhesia, On Demonstrations and Other Crowds

Demonstrations are a mass medium, and the power of that medium is directly related to the participation of the ‘masses’. The demonstration allows people to be part of a collective and to reaffirm their role in the socio-political debate, reaffirming also the need for a counterpart that questions so-called majority policies.

Over the past years I have witnessed the strength and the strong sense of vitality that lives inside this mass medium, but my experiences in Italy also revealed its pitfalls. Demonstrations seem to be losing their prominent role in the public debate. To rebuild their strength it is essential that the individual within the crowd of demonstrators – the one that we might call the Doubter – is prepared to actively question the medium and its message.