On Collective Effervescence, Running, and Memecoins
On Collective Effervescence, Running, and Memecoins
Emile Durkheim's eloquent theory of a special type of energy we feel in special circumstances
I ran my first half marathon a few months ago. The beginning was less than ideal. Standing in McCarren Park under pouring heavy rain amongst fellow masochistic runners, I wondered what I’d signed up for. I remember the NYPD officers who were doing security checks looked at my underdressed self in a soaking wet t-shirt and said in disbelief, “you guys pay money to do this?”
I can now say that I would pay money to do it again. It was the first time I experienced what runners might call “race day energy” – a special kind of sheer positive energy that I feel encapsulates the full journey of the human spirit. It starts brimming with anticipation in the hours leading up to the race, then challenges each runner as they progress mile by mile, uplifting everyone through waves of cheers and cowbells and strangers yelling “go runners”, culminating in a grand finish line soiree where every runner shares the same accomplishment of having gone through the same physical and mental journey together.
I like running because it brings together people from all walks of life. I like running because no matter your race or age or class, at the end of the day you are just putting on a pair of sneakers and moving your body to test your limits. I like running because of the unique feeling of positive togetherness and solidarity with strangers.
If you’ve run in an organized race before, you probably know what I’m talking about. If you have not, I highly recommend running any organized race just to experience this feeling.
Durkheim’s Collective Effervescence
One of my favorite concepts from sociology is Emile Durkheim’s notion of “Collective Effervescence”. Durkheim describes Collective Effervescence as a shared emotional energy that arises within a group when participating in a ritual or gathering. I’d also describe it as that special feeling you get when the vibes in a group are immaculate, without necessarily knowing the people around you. A particular transcendent energy arises out of the collective – something that is greater than the sum of all the individuals.
Collective Effervescence manifests when people come together and participate in shared rituals, experiencing a sense of unity, cohesion, and a heightened state of collective consciousness.
Durkheim wrote about Collective Effervescence in the context of his sociological theory of religion in his 1912 work Elementary Forms of Religious Life. His examples include:
Religious gatherings: ceremonies and rituals are a common thread across all major religions. Gathering and participating in these create a sense of togetherness and solidarity, which further reinforces the collective beliefs and values of the religious community
Tribal gatherings and festivals: similar to religious gatherings, but this can be nonsecular. Dances, rituals, and festivals that are often observed in “primitive” tribes and indigenous communities.
National celebrations and military parades: a “modern society” example, national holiday celebrations with parades bring citizens of a nation together to celebrate shared values and national identity. Synchronized movements of military parades or shows of patriotic force contribute to special rituals defining a nation. Beijing’s stunning 2008 Olympics opening ceremony may be the most impressive example of this in recent memory, one that was able to spread through television screens around the world.
This is why the very idea of a religious ceremony of some importance awakens the idea of a feast. Inversely, every feast, even when it has purely lay origins, has certain characteristics of the religious ceremony, for in every case its effect is to bring men together, to put the masses into movement and thus to excite a state of effervescence, and sometimes even of delirium, which is not without a certain kinship with the religious state. A man is carried outside himself and diverted from his ordinary occupation and preoccupations. Thus the same manifestations are to be observed in each case: cries, songs, music, violent movements, dances, the search for exciteants which raise the vital level, etc.
Durkheim’s Elementary Forms of Religious Life (383)
Collective Effervescence has parallels in other social science disciplines:
Psychiatrist Carl Jung’s theory of the “collective unconscious” – universal symbols, archetypes, and patterns of thought that are shared by all human beings. Rituals tap into the collective unconscious, which fosters a sense of connection.
Anthropologist Victor Tuern’s concept of “communitas” – a state of heightened solidarity that arises during “liminal” moments of ritual, when participants step outside their traditional social roles.
In an era of declining religion and nationalism, the human desire and need to seek Collective Effervescence has found new vehicles for delivery.
21st century Collective Effervescence
When have you experienced Collective Effervescence? Are some forms of collective effervescence “better” or more rewarding than others?
Here are a few that I’ve observed or experienced in my 21st century life:
Concerts, and in particular, raves: I’ve heard Taylor Swift’s recent tour has been insane because the entire stadium knows the lyrics to every single song. Raves, well, let’s just say that it helps that many people are under some other kind of influence that exudes positivity, love, understanding, and respect. Rituals like chanting “one more song” for an encore also bring a crowd together. A tangential question is, some concerts have “bad crowd vibes”. What makes a crowd vibe good/bad?
Sports events: in addition to the energy behind fans and wanting your team to win, rituals also act as the glue for a collective effervescence at every sports game. Doing the wave and chanting oooouueeyyeoooeeyyyahh in a soccer stadium, tailgating culture before NFL games, singing Take Me Out To The Ball Game at a baseball stadium, laughing at the dance or kiss cam at NBA games. A fun question is – which sport has the highest degree of collective effervescence?
Protests: uniting around a common belief and demonstrating might be one of the strongest forms of collective effervescence. I offer that this may not necessarily be a “good” thing from a rationalist point of view, as the emotional fervor of protests and PvP us versus them mentality can collapse the nuance in many issues (not to say rationalism is the right POV). I remember participating in the first BLM march in SF in June 2020 in the midst of COVID. One day it was politically incorrect to gather in a group, and the next it became politically incorrect to not participate in groups. It was a powerful and visceral experience. I remember thinking to myself that the protest leaders could be chanting anything into their megaphones, and the crowd would say it right back. The energy is certainly effervescent, perhaps bordering on intoxicating.
Does digital collective effervescence exist?
One question I’ve been casually posing to my peers recently is: does digital collective effervescence exist? Asked another way, when have you felt a sense of grandiose solidarity with others (ideally strangers) while physically being alone?
My personal answer is that yes, a form of digital collective effervescence exists, but it will never reach parity with the raw humanness of being physically copresent with others. I remain bullish in-person work environments, and remain bullish “IRL” over the “metaverse”.
That being said, here are a few times where I feel like I’ve experienced digital collective effervescence. Note that I think it’s unfair to include digital interactions with friends who you know IRL, since that is more “friendship” energy than effervescent/solidarity with strangers energy.
Following any obscure or shocking news event online. Most recently, this was Oceangate and the whole Titanic submarine story. Social media activism during BLM was also a fascinating time. For some reason, I vividly remember following the tragic Boston Marathon Bombing saga on Twitter, Reddit, live blogs, etc.
I think Durkheim also wrote something about how news tends to be always negative because news by nature is interesting insofar as it “hurts the collective consciousness”. Violence and theft are more common than uplifting stories in mainstream media.
Crypto Twitter and Discord/Telegram: this is an iykyk situation - (3,3) and forks, steady lads deploying more, yo uhhh hmm, 1) what, memecoin $pepe cycle. The Robinhood/Wall Street Bets type of gambling and potentially making 100x on HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu creates a very unique energy. Many times I’ve found myself very seriously looking at DexScreener token fundamental numbers, and then just burst out laughing at how ridiculous everything is.
Live events and Twitter: particularly NBA Twitter, Superbowl, TV show premieres/finales. The speed and rate at which memes are produced from live events might be the 8th wonder of the world.
Last thought - I’ve been tinkering with Vision OS and am very interested to see whether the technology enables new forms of digital collective effervescence that previous AR/VR/mixed reality products haven’t been able to capture.
I’d be curious to hear from you- when have you experienced collective effervescence, offline and online?
In fact, we have seen that if collective life awakens religious thought on reaching a certain degree of intensity, it is because it brings about a state of effervescence which changes the conditions of psychic activity. Vital energies are over-excited, passions more active, sensations stronger; there are even some which are produced only at this moment. A man does not recognize himself; he feels himself transformed and consequently he transforms the environment which surrounds him. In order to account for the very particular impressions which he receives, he attributes to the things with which he is in most direct contact properties which they have not, exceptional powers and virtues which the objects of every-day experience do not possess.
Durkheim’s Elementary Forms of Religious Life (422)