While many thinkers had already before him turned their attention to the phenomenon of the crowd, it was the Jewish author and social theorist Elias Canetti (1905-1994) who made the study of the crowd his core concern (Masse und Macht, 1960; “Crowds and Power,” 1962). Canetti's original contribution to the debate lies, above all, in the firm defense of their positive potential. Starting out with the rejection of all religions as ac…