One of the critical characters of Palm Sunday is the crowd, the crowds. We do not know if they were two different crowds, one shouting Hosanna, and the other shouting Crucify him. The fact is that the crowds can be easily manipulated, as it happens in populist regimes that give bread and circus to the people in order to silence their critical voices and submit their will. On the other hand, crowds have a great influence on the development of a society, as in the case of popular revolutions.
Nowadays, of course, any reference to crowds has to do with the coronavirus pandemic. In this case, to what degree the attitude of the "crowd" may determine the development (or not) of a deadly disease. It is important to realize that what the multitude does depends on the attitude of each one of us. So, it is essential that we all, as individuals, act responsibly.
Misinformation is a huge factor that can come into play to manipulate the crowds. We live in a time when it is easy to be overwhelmed and even depressed by the amount of information we receive, to the point that at times we can’t distinguish between what is reliable information and what is not.
We receive information about a natural cure for the virus, about toilet paper’s fever, about political explanations, or about end-of-the-world religious-based arguments. Everything is mixed in this gigantic pool of information. We can blame the particular interests of the media, and we might be right, but that does not mean that we are exempt from our responsibility to be well informed. Traditionally, we distinguish between the inevitable ignorance that emanates from our own personal limitations, and the guilty ignorance: when it becomes very convenient for us not to know about certain things and let ourselves be carried away by the crowd. These days, we should fight against the latter, as much as we tenaciously fight against the coronavirus.
