Hysteria
The Danger of Mobs
The mob will always shout the finer voices down* Still, they persevere
*Nailing Jesus to a cross is as good an example as any
Bring a dozen run of the mill minds together and soon, alarmingly soon, a thirteenth mind will rise. Prompted by the loudest, most vociferous of the twelve a shared mind will materialize that will both feed and feed on the dozen. It’s an ogre.
Bring a thousand minds together and soon, equally soon, the shared mind, the mob mentality, will materialize and (usually) clamor for blood. The ugly chanting of “Lock her up! Lock her up!” comes to mind.
The well-intended will stand up to and fight this mind, usually silently, but always tenaciously and always with a fine, reasonable and often enlightening voice. Not infrequently, so history tells us, the finer voice is killed by the ogre.
The ill-intended (who somehow seems to know precisely how to stir and then ride this synthetic mind) will manipulate it to his or her own benefit.
The demagogue (who, fittingly is also called a rouser of rabble) knows how to play the mob like a conductor an orchestra. This, I believe, is not a learned skill, it’s more like an animalistic, baser skill (call it survival instinct) that the truly selfish (or evil — think Hitler) seem to possess in spades.
A vivid example of this shared mind is the (usually girl) fan hysteria that met The Beatles whenever they played in their heyday. Watch those faces, watch those staring, pleading, adoring, tear-filled eyes — it could be the same person multiplied by ten thousand — the same expression, the same longing, the same possessed. I find that a little scary.
In The Beatles’ case, of course, this synthetic mind-rising posed no real danger, but when the same phenomenon emerges in a political crowd, say a stadium roused by a demagogue, this is truly frightening.
This is not a new phenomenon. All through history, it appears that humans will look for a strong, emotion-inspiring leader, to then follow more or less blindly. Greed and hatred (along with delusion) are not new human ingredients, not by a long shot — some just know how to play them better than others and these days this skill has evolved into a fine art (think Fox News).
Gotama Buddha must have been well aware of this when, just after his enlightenment, he (knowing the state of his fellow men) seriously considered not sharing his experience and insight with them. Legend (myth) has it that a very senior deity — Brahman, the king of them all — descended from his kingly heaven and appeared before the Buddha pleading with him to change his mind and to go out into the world and share his newly gained wisdom.
“There are those with little dust in their eyes,” said Brahman, who will understand what you have experienced and who will be liberated by your wisdom.
After some more godly arm-twisting, Gotama Buddha finally agreed to tell others about what he had discovered and so he continued to tell about it for the next forty years.
Boy, am I glad he did.
© Wolfstuff
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