(Inspired by Tucker Carlson’s interview with Mattias Desmet)
Introduction: Naming the Thing
When a society shifts in lockstep—opinions synchronize, dissent is punished, and rituals of compliance multiply—we need language, or we go blind. Belgian psychologist Mattias Desmet offers a term for this: mass formation—a kind of group hypnosis that narrows attention, dissolves ethical self-awareness, and makes people strangely proud to sacrifice their interests to “the collective.” The claim isn’t new historically, but Desmet argues our age is uniquely primed for it.
This article distills Desmet’s argument as presented in his conversation with Tucker Carlson: what mass formation is, why it arises, how it becomes totalitarian, and what an ethically sane response looks like.
What Is “Mass Formation”?
Mass formation is not simple mob behavior; it’s a structured psychological process that:
- Narrows attention to a single object of anxiety (e.g., a virus, a class enemy, a heretic), making everything else disappear—like hypnosis.
- Rewires ethics, so actions once unthinkable become not only permitted but morally required (“I had to report them; it’s for the common good”).
- Demands sacrifice: individuals accept personal losses—work, relationships, even family—to prove loyalty to the cause.
Desmet’s rule-of-thumb sociology:
- ~30% become fervent believers/activists.
- ~60–65% comply quietly (go along to get along).
- ~5–10% resist—and their survival depends on continuing to speak.
Preconditions: The Soil in Which It Grows
Desmet argues mass formation thrives where three conditions converge:
- Widespread social disconnection
Loneliness and atomization set the stage. When a significant portion of people lack meaningful relationships and relate primarily through screens, they ache for belonging. - A void of meaning
People experience their work and routines as purposeless. A vacuum of significance invites grand, all-encompassing narratives. - Free-floating anxiety, frustration, and aggression
Emotions untethered to a clear object are intolerable. A unifying narrative offers a target and a strategy, channeling anxiety into action.
Catalyst: A media-amplified story that names the fear and prescribes ritual actions (often costly or absurd). Compliance feels like control and—crucially—community.
Why It Feels Like Solidarity (But Isn’t)
Mass formation mimics solidarity. People feel bonded by a heroic struggle, yet the bond is not person-to-person—it is individual-to-collective. Over time, relationships between actual people weaken. The collective demands increasing sacrifice, and dissenters are branded immoral.
Rituals matter here. Measures without clear pragmatic value (or that demand disproportionate cost) function as loyalty rites. Paradoxically, the more absurd the ritual, the stronger its binding power.
From Mass Formation to Totalitarianism
Desmet distinguishes classical dictatorships (imposed by raw force) from totalitarian systems (rising from a pact between masses and leaders). Totalitarian leaders surf mass formation, using propaganda and technocratic control to harden the spell until dissent is seen as treason.
History, he says, shows a grim pattern: when the resisting minority falls silent or retreats underground, atrocities follow—often within months. The lesson: the minority must keep speaking—publicly, calmly, and persistently—to keep the hypnosis from deepening.
Why Elites Ride the Wave
Desmet attributes modern susceptibility to two long arcs:
- A mechanistic, rationalist ideology that treats the world (and people) as machines optimizable by experts. This erodes mystery, meaning, and lived bonds—fertile ground for mass formation.
- A century of propaganda: from Napoleon’s opinion bureaus to the industrial messaging of the 20th century to today’s saturated information sphere. In modern democracies, Desmet argues, elites learn to govern by managing perception.
He contends that contemporary leaders are often ideological (e.g., technocratic or transhumanist), not merely cynical. They might not fully believe every tactical narrative, but they believe fervently in the end-state—and thus justify manipulation to reach it.
The Technocratic Turn
Following Hannah Arendt’s forecast, Desmet sees today’s danger as technocratic totalitarianism: rule by dull, data-fluent managers who treat society as an engine to be tuned. Elections matter less than dashboards; human plurality gives way to targets and KPIs. The ideology presents itself as “Science,” yet Desmet insists it’s a philosophy about science, not science itself.
Limits of Reason, Recovery of Resonance
Desmet is no enemy of reason—he’s trained in statistics—but he argues reason has hard limits in complex systems. Much of life is nonlinear and unpredictable; try to capture it exhaustively in models and you kill what you’re measuring.
He proposes recovering a second mode of knowing: resonant, embodied understanding (the craftsperson’s feel, the scientist’s intuition, the poet’s language). Without humility before mystery—especially in the face of suffering and death—societies grow anxious and control-obsessed, conditions that feed mass formation.
What To Do: A Short Ethics for Sane Resistance
- Keep speaking—calmly, honestly, publicly.
Don’t expect to “wake” the mass; expect to disturb the spell and keep it shallow. That can save lives. - Refuse hatred; practice person-to-person solidarity.
Rebuild the bonds mass formation dissolves: friendship, family, local community, truth-telling institutions. - Rehumanize knowledge.
Use models and metrics as tools, not as metaphysics. Elevate narrative, art, craft, and wisdom traditions alongside data. - Accept finitude.
A society that cannot face death and loss will always barter freedom for the illusion of control. - Choose ethics over outcomes.
In dark times, keeping one’s integrity is not symbolic—it is structural. Ethical speech is both right and effective.
Conclusion: The Duty of a Voice
Mass formation is old; its technocratic form is new. The fix is not counter-propaganda hysteria but quiet courage: telling the truth as you see it, refusing dehumanization, rebuilding real bonds, and learning again how to resonate with the world beyond what models can grasp. Whether or not the crowd applauds, the voice matters. It keeps the spell from becoming a noose.
