Mob ignorance

The Telegraph's Miranda Devine (whose writing I admire) writes about the new 'revolution' going on in cyberspace and how the world's 'geeks' appear to have the upper hand in this new 'conflict'.
After detailing how said 'geeks' organised themselves into a movement and committed mass vandalism on  those company websites that had been seen to denigrate their new found cult leader, Julian Assange, she then poses a question about an age where group think takes precedence: "Would mob rule descend into totalitarianism? Or would it be what James Surowiecki’s 2004 book, The Wisdom Of Crowds, described as the optimisation of human intelligence? He claimed large groups of diverse individuals - perhaps like the collective “hive mind” of the Internet - make better decisions than the smartest individual in that group.

That anyone might believe that the mob mind could aspire to greatness indicates to me that such a person has obviously never been in, observed or been anywhere near a real life mob. Plus the fact is it that these massed geeks have already committed anarchy (and no doubt massive costs which are invariably borne by the innocent) by attacking those whom they view as complicit in denigrating Assange (sound familiar?).

Unfortunately these are the sort of ideological musings made constantly by ivory tower dwellers. They speculate endlessly about what could, might or should happen in any given situation without any thought actually being given to the impact on real life and/or real people and such musings completely ignore the reality of human nature, particularly mob human nature. The idea that a 'hive mind' could make a collectively better decision that the smartest member of the mob is straight out of Transactional analysis's theory of the 'homo-gestalt' where the sum of the parts is greater than the part's themselves.
It is a flawed theory that completely ignores the power of emotion over the massed will of individuals.  To present a classic 20th century example one has only to reach back to Hitler's time to view how emotional rhetoric can sway the reason of the masses.The theory that the 'hive mind' can be superior to the individual also ignores the fact that decisions made on the Internet are made individually and usually in private, away from the emotional maelstrom that is the mob. The Spanish artist Francesca Goya created a series of masterpiece etchings entitled; "the sleep of reason invites nightmares" which captured the excesses of mob behaviour, I wish that more of those who believe in mob intelligence would view them.

If I were not convinced that there is a final, transcendent solution to all such human folly I would despair about the fact that the so called 'intellegentsia' have completely ignored the evidences of history regarding human actions and are thus setting themselves up for repeat performances. As President Truman opined: those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.

Thankfully the end of history as we know it will bring with it, not a bang nor a whimper but a kiss.