Mob Mentality

Have you ever seen the formation of a mob? Or perhaps been a part if one? And how do mobs form? A mob by definition is a crowd of people gathered with a common purpose or emotion. It can be formed over political/social unrest, sports fanatics, means of survival and criminal intents. Just recently I watched the formation of a mob as they used their good intentions to justify their rowdy behavior. From what I've read and experienced, I've come to see some trends in mobs and how they work. Mobs do not just form in an instant. The seeds are planted long before the actual event occurs. The conditions could involve feelings of confusion, betrayal, resentment, jealousy, fear and so on. These types of emotions leave a negative effect on people which puts them in a victim state of mind. Depending on the circumstances, the pre-mob crowd may be at varying stages of paranoia and stress. Normally by this point they have addressed the source of their discontent which becomes a way to channel their combined negativity in a common direction. The more time spent during this stage increases the intensity of the negativity. Small protests may form. Rumors spread like wildfire as the gossip gathers more followers to the cause.
From here a few things may happen.
1. A specific event may ignite the mob
2. The mob may spontaneously rise up in overwhelming discontentment
3. A group of individuals will plan and organize an event in order to raise a mob into action
Lets look at #1. first off. Depending on the stability of the pre-mob crowd, even a small event by the apparent source of oppression (most often a governing body or organization) could ignite them. Now the people call for action. First they must be gathered with common intent. Depending on the severity of the situation this could range from simply staging a large and provocative protest to the desire to spill blood and see heads roll. The gathering of the people into a collective body is a show of force and power in order for their opinion to be heard. Once they are gathered there is a period of time just before the mob is fully committed to march on the oppressors. This is where the crowd must either gain momentum or be dispersed. To me this is the most important part. This is the last time the mob is together as individuals. After this point than they no longer act as individuals but as a collective mob.
This is what I call Mob mentality. When a Mob has reached this point the desire of the crowd is to go with the flow and commit to the cause. Human nature and emotion decreases logic and the ability to comprehend the outcome of the current objective. Action is the order of the day and the time for reasoning has passed. The mob has now gained momentum and as with the forces of nature, will tend to stay in motion until it meets an opposing force. Going back now to that crucial window of opportunity, It is the actions of certain individuals that can create or dissolve the mob. I believe there are key individuals who control the minds of the people. They can be charismatic, or simply those who are most visibly affected by the circumstance. For whatever reason, the rest of the group act like drones aligning with these key individuals and plotting their course accordingly.
It is important to recognize the role that the emotions held by mob members at this time. Though it is natural and good to have deep reaching emotions, they can have the power to overwhelm your ability to think and make self-governing choices in a mob scenario. People who are generally responsible and supportive members of society will make irrational and harsh decisions when in an over emotional state. It is times like these when the best of intentions can have the worst of results. Rage is a worst case scenario emotion during a mob. If built up rage gets out of hand then the mob will become highly aggressive, impulsive and hostile. Although even in large mobs rage is mostly retained, mob mentality in a breeding ground for extreme emotions, making the gathering of mob a psychological event as much as a physical one.
Of course the climax of the mob is when it finally clashes with authority or disrupts society. This is than followed by a resolution and or dispersion of the mob. This is can be from an external force, the mobs demands being met, or by the after affects of the destruction left by the wake of the mob stirring its members back to their senses.
This is a brief explanation of my Theory of Mob Mentality. Feel free to add criticize and add your opinion if you feel there is a flaw in my logic as I'm sure there is. I was not able to cover all the variables but tried to give the general build up of events for a mob. I could write an entire paper on the subject but due to time, laziness and lack of sleep I shall forgo publication of any such work but would be more than willing to discus it.
~Soya~

Model of Sleep Deprivation

Funny how when you try to think about what happened during the day, you can't seem to remember a darned thing. And even though its only 11 and relatively early for me, I feel dreadfully sleepy. I even got a decent amount of sleep last night falling asleep at only 12:30. Seems as though its catching up with me. But if my predictions are correct this is just a natural fluctuation of my highly abnormal sleeping pattern. Though it is random and inconsistent, it does seem to follow a pattern that repeats on a weekly, or monthly basis. Perhaps it would be an interesting experiment to log the amount of sleep I get over a few months time or longer to determine whether my biological clock does in fact follow any sort of recognizable pattern. However I would have to put much more calculation than amount of sleep received. Looking at the possible variables affecting sleep could include eating habits, physical excursion during the day, activities prior to sleeping (ie: computer, reading, music ect.) and level of stress. Therefore I have concluded that the amount of work involved in collecting the information alone would be more effort than the information achieved is worth. My sub-standard model of sleep deprivation will have to be good enough.
~Soya~

(a more detailed description of what and how my model really functions will be posted once more sleep is attained. So Don't hold your breath waiting for it!)

Testing 123

Just in case anyone stumbles upon my page at the moment, I'm just putting together my blog here, one piece at a time. I get distracted rather easily so it comes in little bits but hopefully soon I'll get my act together!

~Soya~