Regarding Others: Metro Crowds, Metro Publics, Metro Mobs

In the Metro, small crowds gather and disperse at all times, all over the city. Although this is a new routine and discipline, it also carries the energy and force that comes from repetition. A crowd may be a passing nuisance, and yet, once in one, it is impossible to avoid the experience. The promise of the metro crowd, with all its compressions and contortions, is its link to a form of mobility that "does" or even accomplishes modernity. For Elias Canetti, fire, river, sea, rain, and other elements all recall the crowd in one way or the other. The Metro has become a way for protesters to get around the city, to join causes; it has also been a way for the state, through the local police, to manage the crowds of protesters, often by closing key stations before, during, and after protests.