Bid the Mob a Good Day

I can't even get up enough enthusiasm to mock the slight reduction in government interference. 

The EPA is still banning wood stoves.

Greenfield's evisceration from yesterday is a thing of beauty. 

Lileks does a typical, sweet low-key mockery of the loss of the PandaCam.

In the same entry, James links to the clash between the bikes and the SUV we talked about on Monday.  With multiple streams of information about the incident, some new insights emerge.  First, this Hollywood Stuntz ride is apparently a potential source of trouble every year.  This is not just a bunch of boys out on Ninjas and CRs feeling their oats.  Once a large group is formed, for good or evil, it doesn't take much for the mob-mind to predominate.

I recall the streaking phenomenon that occurred on college campuses in the early '70s as an amusing and relatively harmless manifestation of the mob mind.  About that same time I was also witness to two mob actions related to sporting events, one of which I actually participated in.

The first event occurred following a basketball game between Lincoln University -- a historic black college in Jefferson City, Missouri -- and the what was then known as the University of Missouri-Rolla (originally the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, now the Missouri University of Science and Technology).  The Rolla school was not and is not known for its outstanding athletic programs.  The Lincoln Blue Tigers could, at that time, field competitive if not outstanding basketball and football teams.  This particular game was played in the Rolla Fieldhouse, and, in a very close game -- clearly the result of an off-night on the part of the Blue Tigers, the Rolla Miners prevailed.

When it was clear that Lincoln was going to lose with under a minute to go in the contest, the Blue Tiger pep squad came out of the stands and clustered on the edge of the court.  Then they began coming onto the court.  Then the first folding chair went sailing out onto the hardwood.  I decided I had seen enough of the game and very calmly and casually (really) left the building. A small riot ensued where the Lincoln contingent found a truck loaded with firewood and proceeded to use the wood to smash windows, damage vehicles and destroy property.  A few innocent people were injured in the fracas, but police managed to contain it to the vicinity of the Fieldhouse.  Eventually everybody got back on the buses and headed up Highway 63.

The second event followed a win by the University of Missouri-Columbia football team over Bear Bryant's Alabama Crimson Tide.  This game:

When it was over, Columbia erupted. Students filled the Quad, where fireworks were shot and Marching Mizzou showed up. The impromptu parade spilled into downtown, where somebody etched "Missouri 20, Alabama 7, 9-8-75" into fresh cement.

Yes, that happened.  Alcohol may have been involved.  I did not see the cement incident.  Instead, carried along with the flood of the crowd, I watched street signs waver and go down.  Then somehow we ended up at the chained gates of Faurot Field, the football stadium.  Some started to climb the fence.  I got pushed up against the gate which -- fortunately for me -- opened.  The next thing I knew I was putting guys up on the crossbar of the goal post.  They pulled down the uprights.  I had nothing to do with it.  I was just the escalator.

From firsthand experience, I know that any given member of the mob becomes less an individual and more of a tool.  At the time it really didn't bother me, but, thinking about it later, I found it just a little frightening.  How is it possible to suspend all personal judgment and allow the mass mind to make the decisions?  Drugs and alcohol are clearly lubricating agents, but that is not the whole of it.  A person's normal sense of responsibility gets transferred to the greater entity.

As an aside, I wonder if that is not a factor in some of the racial and political stupidity that plagues us.

In any case, one of our first rules of prudence is to keep in mind that the larger the group, the less responsibility any individual member is going to assume.  To put it in my father's terms, "One boy is a boy.  Two boys are half a boy.  Three boys ain't no boy at all." 

Crowds are dangerous and unpredictable.  Their actions can range from mindlessly terrified stampeding to looting to vicious assaults.  People get trampled to death by Black Friday shopping mobs. 

Gang and mob activity seems to be becoming more prevalent.  It is definitely something to keep in mind, watch out for, and avoid if possible.