What do you know about the crowd? The mindless, unfocused, carnal energy of a mob? I don’t know a lot, but what I do know, what I have learned, I fear.
When I was about 15, in high school, a friend of mine was running for some student body position. His name is not Dave, but we will call him that as a place holder. First things first, I want to be clear, this fellow was a good human being and one that was very likable. He is a good person and I wish no ill will upon him. Of other pertinent information, I was and to an extent, still am, a bit of shit disturbing twat when the mood strikes me. A dick-head, if you will. It’s also, in the same breath worth noting my distain for anything school related. These sorts of student things generally made me roll my eyes and mock the situation.
So, one sunny day, I decided with the utmost sarcasm, to begin the process of cheering on everything Dave did. With the exact tone of excitement used in Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail for when there was much rejoicing, I cheered EVERYTHING HE DID. My friends began to do the same. It was, initially, maybe three of us. Then five, or six. I don’t remember how long it actually took, but in a few pronouncements, it went from a dozen to a hundred. Then, it was the entire courtyard. There were hundreds of people. Any time I chanted out something he did, we all yelled “Yaay!”. The feeling I remember being remarkable. Drug like elation, jubilation at being a many, but of one act and one action. We were together and we were many but we were one.
“He’s running in terror!” I announced, to the glorious crowd. “Yaaay!”
“Yaaaay!” Their response came.
He was absolutely running in fear. In my gut I knew this was wrong, this was bad. Despite that, because of the elation, I went along with it until Class Bell went. Dave hid.
Years and years later I managed to get a hold of him and I apologised for that scene. He laughed it off and was forgiving but, I still feel remorse for it. Not because of what happened but, because of what could have happened. What might have been.
It seems so easy for mobs to get out of hand, and, worst of all, that elation makes it very hard for self reflection at an individual level and thereby impossible at a group level.
I see on Social Media that very large numbers of people have seemingly congregated in large, communicative groups. Some of these groups have coalesced into large groups in the street, some of those on large vehicles.
Look, I’m not here to lecture on which side of the Freedom Truck Convoy you should put your beliefs on. I don’t care which side of the Freedom Truck Convoy you should put your beliefs. There are pros and cons to both arguments and it would behoove our nation if our leaders could figure that fact out and sit down and have a conversation. But, I reiterate I don’t want to have that lecture today.
Today, I want to say one thing. If you are in a crowd, real, online, twitter, downtown or on a legal international border, but if you are surrounded by like minded people, getting high off of a feeling of self-righteous indignation. If you loathe your opponent so much you refuse to talk or negotiate with them. If you would cheer to see them running in terror. You. Are. Wrong.
Terry Pratchett put it best in Masquerade: “To Determine the IQ of a mob, you take the lowest IQ in the group and divided it by the number of people in the mob. This is why the average Mob has an intelligence comparable to a carrot.”
That is why you’re wrong, because, the mob can’t think, it can’t plan and it can’t deal with the nuanced issues facing society in this very moment. We need to think clearly and negotiate our needs to the best of our ability. A mob can, at best, react. Usually violently.
Leave your mob, think about what you have, what you actually have and think about what you want to have tomorrow because those may be two very different things. Trusting in group think to maintain the status quo has literally never worked for humanity.