“Eleven dead as mob torch fast food outlet in Karachi”... “Hindu mob attacks US missionaries”... “Christians in India often accused of forced conversions.” “Pakistan mob kills ‘blasphemer’.” One reads such lines in newspapers on a regular basis. What is the definition of a mob?
A mob (a group of persons with heads but no brains, as some people would define it) can be found everywhere, but the absence of the rule of law in many Third World countries means ‘mob rule’ or a mob-oriented public, always bent on handing down palm tree justice. A lynch mob is also commonplace. Mindless mob violence frequently gets coverage in the media where an infuriated crowd swearing to deliver ‘instant punishment’ takes charge.
A mob is like a cluster bomb, which breaks apart to release a large number of small shells with no ‘precision’ guidance. It has a psyche which manifests itself as a mega-personality rather than as a collection of individuals.
Mob hysteria may be aroused to an intensity where the atmosphere becomes ‘electric’ and supercharged with psychic energy and individuals become submerged in the powerful mob-psyche.
Mob rule and blame game in a society are thought to be complementary to each other. In every society some people find a person or a group to blame for a crisis, tension or rivalry. Consequently, the mob takes revenge, cools off and a kind of precarious peace sets in because they have managed to give vent to their frustration with regard to a person or a group. Many societies have over a period of time evolved this ‘scapegoat mechanism’.
Even the developed world finds itself in the grip of mob mania. Not long ago, Hitler’s evil genius exploited this scapegoat mechanism during late ’20s and ’30s when Germany had become a divided and tense society. There were enormous economic cultural, and political problems. Hitler found only one group to blame: the Jews. All economic problems, political tensions, personal troubles could be attributed to this tendency. Hitler did it in a demonic way, precisely by exploiting this mechanism. Similarly, African Americans have been a scapegoat in the US. Blacks, Irish, Muslims and Arabs also being treated the same way.
But the Third World’s conditions offer a more mob-friendly environment, where ignorant masses live through poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, hunger, distress and no means for healthy cultural activities. Chronic suffering and absence of awareness make it easier for them to be swept by the fires of hatred and fanaticism, be it political, nationalistic, religious, economic or social in nature. So, “they constitute one of the greatest and most innocent menaces of modern times”.
A mob is often a victim of conspiracy theory finding it hard to separate “act from fact”. Such people can be influenced into getting indulged in a collective activity by leaders of any school of thought, which are clever enough to exploit their material desires. These people can be controlled by absurd fears, emotional appeals, hollow promises, whereas such ideas can make little impact on their consciousness, for they are not yet developed enough to think on their own. They are the playthings of the better informed and are helpless in the hands of those who seek to use them for any purpose.
It is not the idealism of leaders and demagogues which impresses these people and inspires them to take action, but it’s the desire to retaliate that makes them succumb to such temptations. “The most dangerous leader is the one whose leadership abilities are greater than his or her intellectual abilities. Such a leader may lead the followers over a steep cliff.”
Demagogues may orchestrate such conditions and lead mobs on an emotional basis, which may be devoid of rationality and may lead to taking degrading actions. Masses fight and die after being incited during inflammatory speeches and seldom know what they’re all about. They think that their conditions must be bettered through bloodshed and exploitation.
Once it so happened that a mob brought a woman to Jesus Christ. She had been caught while she was committing adultery. They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What do you have to say?” They said this to test him so they might have a case to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once again, he bent down and started writing on the ground. When the mob heard his words, they dispersed, one by one, beginning with the elders, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way and from now on avoid this sin.”
Scholars have long wondered, what did Jesus write on that occasion? The church authorities say that he was writing on the ground the worst sins of each of the people with stones surrounding that woman. Christ himself was the victim of the scapegoat mechanism, those who gathered around and blamed him. The wonderful truth that is revealed from this tale is that God does not approve of such violence but stands with the victim. A world of compassion and forgiveness is only possible when the next time you feel yourself being drawn into the dynamic power of a mob, think of the worst sin you have ever committed.
“Eleven dead as mob torch fast food outlet in Karachi”... “Hindu mob attacks US missionaries”... “Christians in India often accused of forced conversions.” “Pakistan mob kills ‘blasphemer’.” One reads such lines in newspapers on a regular basis. What is the definition of a mob?
