Mob Rule is Bad for Everyone
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A whole lot is going on in the world right now and we recently wrapped up an off-year election day. Very close elections for state and local governments saw surprises in a number of races, including the race for governor of Virginia. Many experts believe that key to Glenn Youngkin’s — the Republican candidate — success had much to do with the fact that his campaign seized on education as a core campaign talking point. Specifically, “parental rights,” when it comes to deciding what is taught to children in school. And, if we want to get even more specific than that, it has a lot to do with the furor over “critical race theory” and the belief by many parents that it is being forced fed to students across the country in an attempt to make white people hate themselves. Most of these parents can’t correctly define critical race theory or identify how and where it is being taught. But they are showing up in large groups to protest school board meetings, impact local school board elections, and drive coverage by conservative news media outlets. This approach is not without precedent, as Politico deftly points out in a piece about the battles over schools and what we can expect in the future. Schools have frequently been used to promote racism, conservatism, and Christian values to the detriment of children. As my friend and collaborator, the Femme Project, points out in her essay about parental involvement in sex education, parents are not the people who are best suited to decide what is taught in schools.
Especially when parents begin to think, and operate, like a mob. Which I think is fair to say is what’s at the root of what’s happening in many of these cases. I make that assertion because:
Parents are not expressing outrage on a topic (we can pick from a number of current hot-button-issues like critical race theory, masks mandates, vaccine mandates, etc.) because they have done detailed research, understand the issues completely, and are armed with details and facts to support their position.
TANGENT ALERT: There is a great article in Sports Illustrated about how former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy goes off on NBA players who opted not to get vaccinated because they “did their own research.” Check it out.The so-called “concerned parents” often find themselves arguing for positions that are often at odds with science and fact.
The emotional response often is disproportionate to the issue they are concerned about. Just Google “parent at school board meeting,” and pick your topic (critical race theory, mask mandates, vaccines, sex education and see for yourself.
There is a great deal of research that points to the fact that groupthink often does not correlate with personal values or even what rational people should be doing in the face of choosing for or against their own best interest. I would personally like to thank Malcolm Gladwell in his podcast about Wilt Chamberlain’s inability to shoot free throws, for helping me learn about Threshold Models of Collective Behavior. At the risk of over-simplifying a more complex sociological concept, a threshold model explains that collective behavior — how someone behaves when a group is doing something — has more to do with that individual’s willingness to go along with a crowd than it does to do with their own personal beliefs or values. It means that a mob can get us to do something we don’t necessarily believe in, simply because our threshold dictates our willingness to join up, not our belief system nor our personal knowledge of the facts. The mob is good at getting everyone on board to do something regardless of what they think or believe.
Let’s get real about education here. There is a lot wrong with our modern education system. Teachers are undervalued, school system budgets are always being reduced, along with teacher unions and government bureaucracy all get in the way of educational progress. And there are a number of really bad teachers who should not be teaching. According to the Pew Research Center, the United States ranks 38th out of 71 countries in math achievement for our students. Our education system has not changed with the demands of modern society. Our children are paying the price for it and have been for decades. Graduates from college are poorly prepared to succeed in the working world, and we are slowly slipping behind most other developed countries in the areas of technology, science, and math skills.
Where have all those outraged parents been for the past 40 years? For the last 20? Busy being good parents? I don’t think so! According to the CDC kids today aged 8 to 18 spend an average of 7.5 hours a day in front of a screen (phone, television, video game, computer) consuming entertainment. 7.5 HOURS EACH DAY! That’s astounding.
The problem with education is very important for us as a society. It requires smart people — who can prove that they deserve a seat at the table — to come up with solutions to improve the quality of education and overcome the challenges we face. Without the intervention of special interests. But that’s not how things are done in this country. The education system is mostly dictated by mob-rule. Anybody who believes that Governor-elect Youngkin is going to have an impact on the quality of education in Virginia, is profoundly misguided.
Stepping away from my example about schools and education we can begin to see how mob-rule impacts a large number of things that happen in our society. Elections and voting, what’s popular, how we buy things, how we are sold things, and the entertainment we consume are all dictated by mob-rule. Social media likes and mentions are a form of this. What people like to call “cancel culture” is really just a form of mob-rule. And all of it is bad for society when we need smart, thoughtful people working on the issues and challenges that threaten our very existence.
Next time you see a mob gathering, either virtually or in real life, walk-away. Your brain and our society will be much better off.
Copyright © 2021 - Malcolm Bolivar. All Rights Reserved.