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effervescence." While belonging to a tribe or community requires a member to subordinate some of his individuality, participation in the group's rituals allows him to experience an atmo- sphere and energy he would not have been able to create by himself. Sociologist Emile Durkheim wrote of this potentiality: "Within a crowd moved by a common passion, we become susceptible to feelings and actions of which we are incapable on our own. And when the crowd is dissolved, when we find ourselves alone again and fall back to our usual level, we can measure how far we were raised above ourselves." Durkheim called this common passion "collective effervescence" — a special energy that can transfigure an event into something electric, transcendent, even sacred. Collective effervescence can occur at sports events, religious services, political rallies, music festivals – anywhere a group of people are engaged together in a ritual. Durkheim described the experience of col- lective effervescence as being "transported into a special world entirely different than the ordinary, a setting populated by especially intense forces that invade and transform." These forces engender feelings of invincibility and the sense that anything is possible. Think of being at a concert where there was a moment that seemed shot through with a special electric energy – the air was charged and your heart seemed to swell. The moment was brought into being by the audience and performers as a whole – each individual contributed to intensifying the shared mood — and so you felt a sense of unity and warm connection with every- one there – a collective identity. Together you created a moment that was able to transcend the everyday. It can be argued that the ability to cre- ate is our most god-like attribute, and for this reason ritual has the potential to not only solidify bonds, but also sacralize them. Powerful is the bond between those who stand together as co-creators. The sacraliza- tion of relationships is thus most likely to occur at gatherings that are less consum- eristic and have a greater purpose – moral, religious, civic, revolutionary, or heroic. Obviously, collective effervescence has a dark side – people may lose their inhibitions, become overly emotional, and suspend their critical thinking, creating a mob mentality that can spill over into aimless violence and chaos. Think of the protests in Egypt over the last few years – they could be both powerful and effective, but also frequently destructive. Yet it would be a shame to throw out the baby with the bathwater when it comes to meaningful communal gath- erings. As sociologist Alex Law argues, collective effervescence "allows society to recharge its batteries" and "reaffirm its moral unity." Ritual gatherings are even a conduit through which we may generate solutions to societal problems that would not have emerged any other way. Durkheim himself predicted that: "A day will come when our societ- ies will once again experience times of creative effervescence and new ideas will surge up, new formulas will arise to serve to guide humanity for a time." Rituals create a shared world. If creativity and ritual seem like a contradiction, it is because rituals often get an unfair rap as universally mindless and conformist. In fact, rituals are a great font of the imagination. How so? A non-ritualized culture prizes "authenticity" above all, and insists on dealing with reality just as it "really is" (although in practice that usually means uncritically dismissing life's ambiguities and cynically concentrating on its most negative aspects). In contrast, ritual has the potential to create a temporary shared The Art of Manliness Continued JOBS for TEAMS | 18 www.jobsfor teams.com JobsForTeams0414_manliness.indd 3 3/6/14 8:26 AM