Skip to content or view screen version

Critical Mass a Contradiction and a Phenomena

Mike Wells | 27.05.2007 22:24 | London

What the hell is The Mass?

large numbers of people turned out to The Mass after court ruling
large numbers of people turned out to The Mass after court ruling

organic route finding, a left onto Waterloo Bridge
organic route finding, a left onto Waterloo Bridge

No organisers just people
No organisers just people

this is not wrong
this is not wrong


This month’s London Critical Mass passed off without serious problems after a court ruling which makes the organising of The Mass is illegal. For the police, who have brought the court, action it must be almost impossible to understand how there could be such an event without there being organisers.

Psychologically and sociologically the police, as a body, and as individuals, are geared up to give and take orders, they are organised hierarchically, it is therefore easy to see why Critical Mass should be difficult for them to understand. The judiciary likewise are perhaps dumbfounded by phenomenon of The Mass.

I spoke to the officer in charge of policing the mass and he seemed to confirm this misconception. He told me that the Mass itself was not illegal, but the organising of it was. He mentioned that people at the front of the mass who could be taking instructions on a mobile phone could be organising. Also that a website connected with The Mass was an indication of organisation, and inferred that they may be looking for a website moderator.

This is a fascinating is a situation in which the encroaching power of the state to monitor and control is somehow being challenged by an organic and disorganised phenomena. I personally have taken part in many Masses and, for the police who monitor Indymedia, can confirm that it is indeed unorganised. The mass is difficult to quantify. It is not one thing. It is many things, it is a bunch individuals, but they, as individuals, also act as a “mass” or, on “mass”, but that is only because they are a mass. In other words the phenomena of The Mass is somehow a contradiction.

Mike Wells
- e-mail: mikejwells@yahoo.com
- Homepage: http://mikejwells@yahoo.com

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

The only organisers are the police themselves.

28.05.2007 05:27

The police decide when the Mass should stop or continue when they block the front of the ride, therefore they are the organisers. They also decide when sound systems should play or not, or when the ride can go through red lights or not. They have also tried in the past to determine the route at certain points.

Does this mean we can perform a citizen's arrest of those organisers under the new ruling?

Masser

We are all organisers - thousands of us

28.05.2007 11:10

Why don't we all say we're organisers, mebbe encourage everyone on the ride and other regional rides to send in a postcard to the met saying we're all organisers.

Mebbe we could also generate thousands of random routes and inform them individually?

just some krazee ideas :P

masstastic

Emergent Order Out of Chaos

31.05.2007 18:15

Mathematically and scientifically speaking it is not really a contradiction that Critical Mass is an unorganized organization. Emergent properties arise from complex chaotic systems quite frequently in nature. This is true for social systems as well as for physical systems. A book, coincidentally titled "Critical Mass" (no relation to the movement) by PHillip Ball, discusses and illustrates how this type of phenomenon happens.

While Critical Mass is still alive and well in the UK it has been running into major roadblocks in the United States. In New York City for instance it has been made unlawful for a group of 50 or more cyclists to ride together by defining this as an illegal parade. If this tactic proves to be successful in stopping Critical Mass in New York City it could prove to be the end of any effective Critical Mass movement in the United States.

I noticed how the author of this article refferred to the Critical Mass rides as "Mass". When I read this I couldn't help but to be reminded of Christian Mass which lead me to an internet search for "bicycle religion". Among the the things I found when I did this search was a website for a religion called Matrixism. Matrixism as you can imagine is based on the movie trilogy "The Matrix". It came up for the "bicycle religion" search because it ties itself to the Critical Mass movement and has as one of its holy days something called "Bicycle Day". With all the fighting of machines, police and federal agents in "the Matrix" Matrixism and Critical Mass seem to be a perfect fit.

The American legal system (and those of many other countries) are peculiar when it comes to religious expression. Perhaps one legal way for "Critical Mass" to break through legal roadblocks would be to fight the court orders as an infringement on the free expression of religion.

Zak
mail e-mail: malcomrazor@yahoo.com
- Homepage: http://http:/www.geocities.com/matrixism2069