Masses are people unintegratable into common-interest organizations

Evidence

Masses are not held together by a consciousness of common interest and they lack that specific class articulateness which is expressed in determined, limited, and obtainable goals. The term masses applies only where we deal with people who either because of sheer numbers, or indifference, or a combination of both, cannot be integrated into any organization based on common interest, into political parties or municipal governments or professional organizations or trade unions. Potentially, they exist in every country and form the majority of those large numbers of neutral, politically indifferent people who never join a party and hardly ever go to the polls. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 746

Categorization

• DEFINE: Arendt’s precise technical definition of ‘masses’ as distinguished from ‘class’ — held together by appetite for political organization rather than common interest or articulate goals.
• XREF: This class-vs-masses distinction is the load-bearing difference later Islamophobia readings build on for how racialized groups are framed as undifferentiated masses. — connects to: Peoples cut off from common action turn inward to claim collective divinity; Organic elites express their social mass while volunteers detach themselves from it; Masses differ from classes by lacking common-interest articulation (+2 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 746

Broader Connections

• Masses differ from classes by lacking common-interest articulation #expands (0.95)
• Peoples cut off from common action turn inward to claim collective divinity #expands (0.85)
• Failing to integrate masses into the state produces a stunted, dependent ruling class #expands (0.85)
• Representation requires organic cohesion, not merely formal delegation from masses to leaders #expands (0.82)
• Organic elites express their social mass while volunteers detach themselves from it #responds-to (0.75)