“The call for peace in the face of an aggressive, conquering enemy is identical to a call for surrender, although expressed using different language and alternative visual symbols.”

“Herding is a survival mechanism for defenseless creatures, and to see crowds of our fellow-men walking together in the night, decrying violence, it comes to mind that the people marching believe themselves to be largely defenseless.”

Well, they have been both conditioned and legislated to be so.

“The candle-crowd is the pacified parody of the jackbooted Red Army-march”

Yes.

One quibble: “watching the others for queues”

A queue is a line. A cue is a signal.