The Seduction of Crowds (Eugene Peterson)

“Classically, there are three ways in which humans try to find transcendence–religious meaning…: through the ecstasy of alcohol and drugs, chemically induced transcendence and recreational sex, and through the ecstasy of crowds. Church leaders frequently warn against the drugs and the sex, but at least, in America, almost never against the crowds. And there’s something about the moment we inhabit, I think even globally, that that feels very resonant and psychologically astute”.

-Eugene Peterson, from an interview on NPR’s On Being.