Listen to Reason Part-2

Fear and masses.

The United States Constitution guarantees, to all citizens, the right to assembly. Why? The answer is simple, many of the framers of the Constitution believed revolution to be necessary to a healthy democratic government, and wanted to facilitate this action when it came due. There is strength in numbers. In Chicago, as I’m sure is the case in many other cities, it is illegal for a large number of people to loiter, regardless of their activity.* Why? There is strength in numbers. Only a fool would suggest otherwise. It has widely been considered for thousands of years that mob mentality is both the most effective weapon and largest threat available to us as humans. Conquest is impossible without huge numbers, and revolutions are won by the many. It is empowering to think that you, I, every one of us, is an integral part of something great, or the potential for it. As only part of the whole can do, each individual is great, provided that that the rest of the whole backs us up. I find the most interesting aspect of this to be the inverse of directional mob action, mass hysteria. Few things in the world are functionally more diametrically opposed. One shining example of what a well directed mob can do is the storming of the Bastille. The poor and down trodden French citizens kicked off their revolution with the bloody conquest of a prison. (The Bastille was often used as a political prison, and many were unjustly held there.) It was their numbers which allowed them victory. Now, imagine a similar group standing idle, like sheep, harmless. Then, just hypothetically, we throw a tear gas grenade into the crowd. One person sees it and thinks, “It’s only tear gas, if we stay calm, we’ll be fine.” But he is only one. Another sees it and thinks, “that’s a real grenade; we’re all going to die.” Another sees it and thinks, “If everyone panics, I’ll be trampled to death.” One gasps, one sighs, one screams, one runs, one pushes, one cries. When sheep graze, any alarming sight or sound causes them to flee, but they are pack animals, synchronized, they evade. We are not pack animals, we think like individuals. One, seeing reason and logic, raises her voice above the crowd, “Don’t panic,” but she is too late. It has begun, suddenly, this is Hemmingway, it’s Pamplona, except the people and bulls are one and the same. Many have no idea why they are panicked. Nevertheless, this crowd is a whirlwind of destruction and death, inconsolable, nearly unstoppable. Each member’s fear feeds the other’s, and self-preservation supersedes cooperation. We have learned a valuable lesson; though numbers may help us when we are resolute, they are volatile and fear can destroy them and their cause.
We are, if only in intent, a nation of, for, and by the people. Democracy, as beautiful as it may be, is a glorified title for what is essentially, the concept that a mob can rule itself. In fact, that it is preferable. As Americans, we are the individuals who form the mass, it is, predictably, empowering. We labor under the delusion that we can enact change, through our constitutional right to assemble and associate. In appearance, we can, but that is a discussion for another day. This power, control over our own state, is a major cause of what is considered typical American bravado. I am proud to have the right to form a mob, as are many others, as is our right. I have a bit of bad news for you, a flash of reality; we have not exercised this right to productive ends for two hundred and thirty one years. Our nation’s population nears half a billion, if we were to function en mass it would be impossible to control. We would operate like a biblical plague of locusts, like spooked bulls, simply destroying without reason. The powers that be know this, and deep down, we know this.
Propaganda is most effective when subtle. I don’t presume to be so smart that I know what’s going on, in the conspiracy theory, grand scheme sense of the term. What I observe is that the vast majority of us is panicked and frozen, politically, socially, and intellectually impotent in the face of fear. I look at the popular media, and the not so popular media, and I see myself standing in the crowd, staring down a tear gas grenade, all the while thinking, “It’s only tear gas.” Bomb threats, Anthrax, the TSA, homeland security, terrorism, we are being frightened into utter helplessness. The threat, the paper tiger which is causing us to load our guns and bolt our doors, is not as dangerous as we think. Terror attacks will not destroy our nation. They will hurt, kill, or terrify a relatively small number of people. The really clever and tricky thing is that a mob in resolve becomes individuals in fear. We fear terror attacks because they could hurt us individually. Someone, intentionally or otherwise, is putting pressure on our individual fears. The unfortunate result of this is that is keeps our eyes off of the real threat; THE CROWD! The tear gas wasn’t the threat, the crowd, disassembled by fear, panicked as individuals is what causes the dangerous condition.
I see nothing in the media except fear mongering and low brow pandering (the variety of which I spoke in part-1). We are being thrown into a frenzy of panic, keeping us from assembling productively. I beg of you all, reject fear. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” At no point in American history has this been more pertinent. We do not face an enemy who will invade our borders and subjugate our people. We face social destruction by virtue of our own terror. Let it never be said that the United States of America was destroyed by its own shadow.


*I need to look for more substantial evidence, but this ordinance was challenged as being unconstitutional. I don’t know what the finding was, or if there has been one yet.