There is a real comfort in numbers. You look around, see plenty of other people doing the same thing or going through the same thing, and it feels alright — some of the fear drains off. Innocent admits he feels it too, and sometimes the opposite as well: uneasy about a thing precisely because everyone else is doing it.

The cost is quiet. “Doing things in numbers tends to discourage free thought.” Since everyone is doing it, it must be fine, and so “you don’t analyze and judge the usefulness and effects of the actions” the way you would if the choice were yours alone.

That is what he names as frightening, and it is not the crowd’s disapproval. It is his own thinking going soft inside the comfort of company — blending in until you stop paying attention.