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Hey guys! I got a few people to help us with our rioting!!!
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But by the look of it, they're a few dozen galaxies away. Fat lot of good that'll do...Quote:
Originally Posted by Jurnis
Actually, they discovered a stable wormhole that will take them near enough to start helping. We just gotta wait a few weeks, that's all...
*Goes to find Chuck Norris*
Every Simpsons episode.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boleslav
I'm not being sarcastic at all.Quote:
Originally Posted by *jdm*
The basis, in a real reply to Boleslav, I suppose would be Sigmuend Frued's crowd behavior theory. Now I'm not talking about 'the masses' or the public in general, I was referring to mobs and mobs alone. The Boston Massacre, for example, was a mob that attacked a group of British soldiers with no provocation. The Seattle WTO riots, while I agree more with the rioters than the WTO, started with only a few violent masked agitators and quickly turned hundreds of otherwise peaceful protesters into rock-throwing, cop-attacking, property damaging rioters when they realized the police did not have control over the downtown area.
It's the same theory behind putting plants in audiences during political debates or get-rich-quick seminars. People in group settings are extraordinarily self conscious of how others immediately around act and think, and part of their common sense just vanishes. Why is public speaking so hard for many people? Mainly because the speaker is aware that a large group is instantly judging them on what they say and how they say it. In a mob there is a sense of anonymity, a feeling that if someone is going to get in trouble for what is going on, it isn't going to be me for smashing in the department store window and stealing some new shoes and a flat-screen TV.
If you're looking for an actual cited source, you could read "Geometry For the Selfish Herd", by W.D. Hamilton which looks at animals running from a predator. They collapse and move towards the center of their group in order to reduce the immediate danger upon themselves. People do the exact same thing, "various forms of order... emerge spontaneously in large social groups from individual's simple attempts to fit in with their local neighbors" (Latan?, B., & Bourgeois, M. J. (1996). Experimental evidence for dynamic social impact: The emergence of subcultures in electronic groups. Journal of Communication, 46, 35?47). Spike Lee used this idea as the ending for his movie, "Do The Right Thing." When Mookie throws the trash can throw the window of the pizza parlor, the crowd snaps and instantly turns violent.
Just to be clear, I'm not like...defending totalitarian police states or saying all group activity is bad. People do things in mobs they wouldn't do without the presence of a group (i.e. the Wave, lynchings, lip singing to songs from the Sound of Music while dancing in train stations).
What the hell are you talking about? I lynch people all the time. And you can't tell me I'm the only one who does the wave every now and then when I'm home alone.