Your Perspective can change quickly. I can remember sitting in this café with a
sore back and the effort required to lean even 5 degrees forward or backward
was akin to a cheese grater on my spinal column. I bought the same drink I have now and even sat at the same table
but I could no longer smell the coffee, notice the waiter’s welcoming smile or
even see the people with whom I was sitting.
My field of vision was restricted to a portion of my lower back and its surrounding
nerve endings. Each movement had to be
planned in advance to prepare for the forthcoming pain. I grew to recognize these pre pain signs,
sweat to the brow and upper lip, a tightening of the stomach muscles and a roll
of the shoulders as if to accomplish the required adjustment by means of the
upper body alone. People stare at you
when you do such odd affected motions.
They cannot help themselves.
Perhaps it is a lingering memory of the pack we once
were. Such movements would signal ill
health, weakness, frailty and an urge to turn on the weakest pack member stirs
within all the rest. Nature’s way of
strengthening the pack. Not only
killing off a substandard member but providing, by eating them, useful
nutrients to the rest. In such a win
win situation pack members would be assiduous about noticing limps, stiffness,
poor skin or coat health. Of course,
turning on a weakened pack member also insures that you, yourself do not become
a victim. Finding a weaker member,
other than yourself, is therefore a sensible strategy. It is thought that this self-protection lies
at the heart of mob psychology.
It has long been noted that groups of people in mobs have a
communal morality much lower than any individual member. They will tear you limb for limb, stone you
to death, happily lynch and set fire to you when perversely not a single
individual on their own would sanction such gross atrocities. So what is it that makes such a discrepancy
in codes of behaviour.
The answer lies in the mobs first act of violence. Once it is taken each member of the mob
knows there is a definite possibility that the mob could turn on them just as
easily. What can they do to prevent
such an outcome? They must out do the
first violence, up the anti so to speak.
By this means they prove their loyalty to the pack, keep the rage
targeted on some one other than themselves and in doing so trigger an ever
ascending spiral of atrocity in others for the exact same reasons. This fuels the final carnage.
