THE PORTRAITS

Jeremy: “We are pack animals, us humans: we flock together. I’m always inspired by today’s great online movements for change where millions, particularly the young, converge digitally behind causes that matter to them. In great numbers we can effect change more easily. But sometimes, our species has shown it is equally capable of following the herd to far more destructive places. I always wonder how Hitler persuaded so many thousands of his henchmen to carry out brutality in his name. Abject fear for many, but perhaps for a significant number of others the intoxication of being part of a crowd, even if its aims were abhorrent. A recent study found that we are drawn to a crowd who are all grouped around something in the street, but scarily, a majority of us follow the crowd where everyone else is actively avoiding responding to someone lying in the road crying out for help. If today’s generation had lived at the time of slavery would we have created a mass movement to defy it, or, because everyone else thought it was normal, would we never have questioned it? These are things I’ve spent considerable time - rarely comfortably - pondering.”