Mass Observation

April 12th, 2008 Posted in The People, Cadre, Cadre Functions

Life is a 24/7 proposition. To imagine all of us worldwide concurrently acting is staggering. And over time, one day after another up to one century after another and more, to register and record the entire shebang of action in sequence is so complex and convoluted that it might be impossible. Even thinking about it requires a summarizing eye–recording, indexing, preserving in a central place.

Even more, the research process is another part of the whole, and if we were to all join in the observing, it would become the thing itself. This mob in action is the object of the study of social life. Of the data this is the source –what all of us (including the supposed objective observers) are doing (altogether mind you) in real time.

Each of us in his 24/7 will notice the disconnect between our own experiences (what we see, hear, sense, feel, do and think and their direct consequences that are available to our knowing) and the parallel media reports and the follow-up histories later. Might as well be separate worlds.

Admittedly, sometimes if we are at the spot when and where the big story occurs, there can be a convergence. We inch toward the center then, become one of the players or one of the witnesses or both. But even then our part is still unique and in detail different and, from the viewpoint of the whole, incomplete.

Let us call this the experience of the mass. Mainly anonymous, but always vivid.

There is another level that we might call the sovereign function. We often think of it as all knowing, all seeing, and able to act with power and precision; but it is variable, sometimes fragmented, and certainly not perfect. Each institution and focus of activity tends to have its own specialists who keep tract of statistics, personalities, issues in the field and they are usually aware of (and able to communicate with) the executives, governors, leaders–the people able to command and coordinate the skilled actions of still others. So incoming information is processed and interpreted and plans and reactions can follow.

There is also a pro-active center, again located in different places and among different people according to institution and situation. These involve laws and regulations, the actions of the military and police and bureaucracies and can contain ideological and/or moral ideals and tendencies or simply be concerned with management of the society.

I think of these executives and managers and their associates and assistants as cadre. They are the one’s who, to some extent, direct and coordinate the rest of us.

Our actions can be classed into two parts. Those required by the necessities of life–that follow from our biological nature and its associated cultural forms. In a TV commercial a number of years back a group of youngsters are talking about what they want to be when they grow up. All the kids opt for exciting, adventurous jobs except the one who will become a haberdasher. “One thing clear,” he says, “You’re all going to have to wear clothes.” And eat, eliminate, engage in love and kisses, care for kids, wash, attend to health, learn necessary skills (go to school), dispose of our dead and so on. Just about all of our time is fruitfully spent so engaged. (If you will permit I think I will place sociology here as well.) Please note that at this level of action everyone is in the grouping. The sovereign, the cadres, the mass. The short and the tall, bless them all.

Then there are the dramatic events, unexpected, mysterious, dangerous. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse give us a start here: War, Famine, Pestilence, Death. We might add natural disasters. If you would like to add pernicious habit, feel free. How about the heavy economic crises of inflation, depression, exploitation, gouging, global warming? We are suggesting here serious challenges to the survival of both people and society. These catastrophic events jolt the governing and the social orders and the people (or some segment of the people) directly. The basic domestic and life activities continue (or try to) no matter how serious the dislocation. This is the second order challenge of these threats.

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Mass Observation, whose archive and administrative center is located at the University of Sussex in the UK, is a very serious and persistent attempt to directly access the experience of the people. (I have here called this aspect of all-of-us-together the mass–used in the sense of all the people equally.) You can get some idea of their method and results by visiting their web site.

Just a few random rambles on this topic.

1) One of the minor characters in the movie “Confidential Agent” 1945 (Directed by Herman Shumlin with Charles Boyer and Lauren Bacall in the lead roles.) is a Mass Observation worker who writes down snippets of overheard conversation. His notes later in the story become evidence in a murder case. The movie was based on a Graham Greene novel which I haven’t read yet. If Mass Observation got into a Greene novel, man, that’s big time.

2) A lot of blogs on the Web approximate the Mass Observation method–in and about one’s own life and adventures. The key to using them might be in grouping these writings according to topic. Mass Observation sets topics now through what they call directives issued to correspondents every few months. Finding the patterns and meanings is the task of the analyst.

3) Mass Observation in form is very close to spy rings, like the Red Orchestra, the USSR organization working in Western Europe in World War II. Little bits of information from scattered agents feed back to the center and lead to patterns and insights as well as specific secret information. Similar information nets are used by police (such as undercover agents, informers) to tap into the criminal underworld. And dictatorships notoriously use resident agents for blocks of flats and for neighborhoods to keep track of any indication of opposition. The Mass Observation people are aware of these potential traps and warn contributors to have a care in reporting behavior that can be classified as crime and to avoid actual names.

4) The question of quantification and statistical precision does not bother me. The forms of social order and the patterns of behavior can turn up in single cases and through one agent. Extent and number are something else.

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I was in a theater once (sorry I can’t remember the details) and Philip Glass came out on the stage, divided the audience into three parts (left, right, and center). and lead us in a song that he, I think, composed on the spot. And we heard, through our own vocalization, the voice of the people.

And, my friends, keep on singing.

Note.

The story of the Red Orchestra is grim and ideologues still seem to be arguing over the details. I’ve offered two links above. In addition there is the memoir of Leopold Trepper, titled “The Great Game.” Trepper was the acknowledged head of the ring until his capture in Paris.