MOB MENTALITY

Mob mentality is prevalent everywhere, and it surfaces during our everyday (apparantly harmless) social interactions. Everytime you pull a friend's leg along with others, everytime you watch your national team play, it's there, lurking around the corner. It's a relic of our evolutionary history, like most, nay all of our emotions. You feel secure when you are part of a group, you like to belong there, and just to make yourself feel better, you try to make the outsider's life uncomfortable. But how do we define an outsider? Is it necessary? Yes, it is very much a neccessity to find an outsider(s), someone who doesn't 'belong' with you, for only then will you get a chance to prove your allegience to your fellow 'brethren', by targeting the outsider. This endless game of inclusion and exclusion is reflected in the earlier mentioned ordinary happenstances. Just try to think about it objectively, the way you dress, the way you talk, it's all defined by what's necessary to be a part of 'group' of your choice. How many times have you ridiculed someone for being 'out-dated', for not following the latest fads and fashion? I used to wonder why schoolkids target the silent loner among their classmates, or in college the non fashion conscious guy/gal is in for a hard time. They are just different, why can't you let them be? Now I know, that's because they are the soft targets who will help you establish your being a part of a mob, and give you a sense of security, security in numbers. We still haven't forgotten that it's best to hunt in a pack.
And of course, all these things add up to show a really ugly face, when during a riot a surging mob rapes and kills, or first world nations invade a third world country. Is man really the 'noble beast'? Or just a beast behind a noble facade?