Reflections on #CNMAC11 – number two
As Christians, we are both familiar and comfortable with the imagery of the flock. A flock is a gathering of vulnerable creatures in need of succour and protection from a shepherd. We can trace this image for God’s people way back into the Old Testament, to people like David, Ezekiel and Isaiah.
A herd is a rather different image – a group of wilful beasts controlled by its dominant members. The herd doesn’t get much of an airing in biblical imagery, and we would probably be uncomfortable with its implications of male dominance.
A swarm is a different thing altogether. A swarm may consist of thousands of members, all moving together with astonishing dexterity and beauty. You have only to watch the short video of starlings exhibiting this kind of behaviour below to see this. For generations the swarm was a mystery to scientists – how could it move as a single unit with no obvious means of co-ordination? To try and understand it, Craig Reynolds built a computer simulation programme called Boids in 1986. Each element in the swarm was given 3 steering behaviours: separation, alignment and cohesion. Gradually scientists began to imitate the behaviour of the swarm – though fully understanding it is a way off yet.
I mention this because when @JamesPoulter was talking at CNMAC11 about the power of social media for change, I couldn’t help thinking that this was closer to swarming behaviour than it was to flocking or herding. The swarm he was describing was united neither by creed, ethnicity nor even by a single cause – and yet they moved together. How does such a concept fit with our ideas of church, I wonder?
The more I think about it, the more I feel that individual Christians behave in different ways acording to circimstance.
In the Kingdom of God we behave as if in a flock – looking to the shepherd of our souls to nurture us and keep us from danger.
In the church – we occasionally behave as if in a herd, conceding dominance to the noisy ones, whether in official leadership or not.
In the digital church, out there in webland, I wonder whether we behave more like a swarm when the right (or wrong) issue unnerves us?
Comments welcome
preachersa2z
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October 17, 2011 at 1:13 pm
Pam Smith
That’s a really useful distinction Richard.
I don’t know a lot about swarms but I was interested to read on Wikipedia about swarm behaviour that:
“From the perspective of the mathematical modeller, it is an emergent behaviour arising from simple rules that are followed by individuals and does not involve any central coordination”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_behaviour
That makes me wonder, about online behaviour, who sets the rules? And, as a Christian, should I be following them?
October 17, 2011 at 2:06 pm
preachersa2z
Pam
I guess that’s why I posted it. Whilst feeling truly inspired about the tremendous power of a soc med campaign, I also sensed a concern about whether individual behaviour ends up being dictated by the swarm?
October 17, 2011 at 1:46 pm
@drgeorgemorley
Hmmm, digi-locusts?!
And check out Michael Crichton’s Prey… let’s not go there, folks!
October 17, 2011 at 2:04 pm
preachersa2z
Oooh – I know…scary book!
October 17, 2011 at 2:21 pm
Pam Smith
Maybe we are called to be in the swarm, but not of it?
October 17, 2011 at 2:31 pm
preachersa2z
Ha! Very clever
October 17, 2011 at 4:02 pm
@drgeorgemorley
There is a real danger with the [human] swarm model that it is really only the ‘crowd’, the ‘them’, where individuals renounce responsibility and submit to the power they have given [away] to Them. I’m thinking in existentialist-y terms having just read Insurrection (!), but I think individuals are important (1) per se and (2) for their capacity to lay down self-interest and serve the other and (3) for their capacity for community. So bit anxious about swarm if = crowd. BUT I think I’d like to chew over “separation, alignment and cohesion” – these sound like nearly theological words and de-locusted might be useful!
October 17, 2011 at 10:52 pm
preachersa2z
Hmm
I would like to think more on those too…
October 17, 2011 at 4:07 pm
@tim_hutchings
Hum. A swarm seems like an aggressive thing to me, coming together to attack an outsider – think of swarms of bees or ants. The word we use for starlings is “flock”, anyway, which slightly messes up your metaphors
Would “cloud” work better than “swarm”? A cloud has no leaders or enemies, but it can suddenly form and grow into beautiful shapes. And if the cloud encounters impurities in the air, it starts raining until it washes them all out…
Most of the time, though, we act like a herd: someone tweets a great thing, and we all share it and comment. Some people have more influence than others, and that’s usually a good thing!
October 17, 2011 at 5:57 pm
preachersa2z
Somehow I like the word “swarm” on account of its mysterious but intentional movement. However, your point stands – and it is unfortunate that the flock of starlings are exhibiting swarming behaviour (in terms of the computer model, at least). Great to meet you at CNMAC
October 17, 2011 at 4:58 pm
Flock, herd or swarm? « Richard Littledale's Preacher's A – Z – Kingdom of God Worship Blogs
[...] EXCERPTED FROM Kingdom Of God Worship source http://richardlittledale.wordpress.com/2011/10/17/flock-herd-or-swarm/ [...]
October 17, 2011 at 7:33 pm
Pam Smith
I think a lot of behaviour online does conform to the more sinister aspects of swarming that Tim identifies – every trending topic on Twitter represents a huge number of individuals gathering around an issue and commenting on it, and sometimes people complain of Twitterstorms where people or issues are repeatedly attacked by different individuals. In the UK I can think of the superinjunctions issue as a prime example where individuals felt a huge group of unidentified individuals were going after them in a fairly uncontrollable way.
As Christians we may wish to be seen as part of a beautiful cloud rather than a swarm, but I’ve certainly seen what could be described as ‘swarming’ behaviour from groups of Christians on Twitter and Facebook and indeed on forums!
October 20, 2011 at 11:19 am
The BIGBible Project | Capture the moment at CNMAC11
[...] Flock,herd or Swarm? [...]
March 6, 2012 at 7:53 pm
Not vacuous but victorious « Richard Littledale's Preacher's A – Z
[...] the Autumn of last year I attended a fascinating session by James Poulter at CNMAC11 on the power of social media to effect change. In it he asked what Wilberforce might have done with [...]