thealigator
Registered Member
I am re-watching a TV Special by someone named Derren Brown. He is not a magician but he is someone who can mentally alter peoples perceptions and thoughts by using his mind and implying certain things.
In the special I am watching he is addressing the idea of Mob Mentality. In the show he is using a person and multiple other people as puppets. To do this he gathers many people, puts them into a studio and offers them two choices, to do a bad thing or to do a good thing (for example spilling a drink over the person or him getting a free drink), then they get to vote on which choice to make and it would appear that the audience mainly want the bad thing to happen, for the majority of the evening the audience choose to do the bad thing and be nasty to border line cruel.
I remember the first time I watched it thinking "this is not funny to me, why are people laughing? You are ruining this man for your own amusement", this is not me trying to sound self righteous it just happens to be true.
We see mob mentality on almost a daily basis, in work, in war zones, in politics and at times (though not so much anymore thankfully) football games here in the UK. Where people think it is okay to be nasty or cruel because others are. I do not share this philosophy. Am I perfect? Certainly not but I know if I see something wrong and walk away.
What is your take on this though? I am not looking for confessions and please do not judge others, it is simply something I am quite interested in.
In the special I am watching he is addressing the idea of Mob Mentality. In the show he is using a person and multiple other people as puppets. To do this he gathers many people, puts them into a studio and offers them two choices, to do a bad thing or to do a good thing (for example spilling a drink over the person or him getting a free drink), then they get to vote on which choice to make and it would appear that the audience mainly want the bad thing to happen, for the majority of the evening the audience choose to do the bad thing and be nasty to border line cruel.
I remember the first time I watched it thinking "this is not funny to me, why are people laughing? You are ruining this man for your own amusement", this is not me trying to sound self righteous it just happens to be true.
We see mob mentality on almost a daily basis, in work, in war zones, in politics and at times (though not so much anymore thankfully) football games here in the UK. Where people think it is okay to be nasty or cruel because others are. I do not share this philosophy. Am I perfect? Certainly not but I know if I see something wrong and walk away.
What is your take on this though? I am not looking for confessions and please do not judge others, it is simply something I am quite interested in.