“An invisible crowd which has always existed, but which has only been recognized as such since the invention of the microscope, is the crowd of spermatozoa. 200 million of these animalcules set out together on their way. They are equal among themselves and in a state of very great density. They all have the same goal and, except for one, they all perish on the way. It may be objected that they are not human beings and that it is therefore not correct to speak of them as a crowd in the sense the word has been used. But this objection does not really touch the essentials of the matter. Each of these animalcules carries with it everything of our ancestors which will be preserved. It contains our ancestors; it is them”!
Excerpt from “Crowds and Power” by Elias Canetti, p. 47
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