tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134533972010981122.post6952771764147300062..comments2024-03-28T17:46:07.937+00:00Comments on The Edithorial: More tea, Socrates?Edith Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02518971064140009711noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134533972010981122.post-57845615235926636062012-12-31T03:17:25.758+00:002012-12-31T03:17:25.758+00:00When this kind of violence occurs, how many of tho...When this kind of violence occurs, how many of those who become party to it really intend or understand that this is what is happening? In the space of time over which these events occur, how many of those involved retain the ability to connect their individual actions with those of others and their likely effects, and how many act, in whatever small way, not realising until much later the likely consequences? Same with football violence, or looting and rioting; probably the same with pillaging soldiery. The mob permits and produces much that most of the individuals comprising it probably would not. I suspect some of the powerful and privileged's fear of the masses stems from fear more specifically of the mob. <br /><br />It seems to me that part of what happens when notions of class or status become establised is that the tendencies of the mob are ascribed to the lower and more numerous sections of society generally. Separating the tendency from the circumstances that allow it to surface - and then from the fact that these would seem to affect certain sections of society more widely than others - is very hard (I'm not sure I'm doing a terribly good job of it here) and events like these both reinforce prejudices and make proper analysis of the causes more difficult. I'm not sure anyone is really comfortable honestly discussing the aspects of human nature - individual and collective; as they apply in the immediate circumstances, or as they function over generations to create those circumstances - that allow any of these things to happen. Matt Keefehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06504500969184399780noreply@blogger.com