“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
I must be in a very contemplative mood today because I witnessed a phenomon I've seen hundreds of times that made me start wondering just why people commit heinous crimes in large groups they wouldn't think of committing by themselves.
Consider a riot. Do people start rampaging because everyone else is doing it or do they just use the pretext of being part of the herd to act on the evil impulses that have been in their heart all along? Do people do things to belong or do they do things because they finally have permission to do what they've wanted to all along? I have no idea but it's an interesting question. I lean towards the permission theory but maybe I just have a dark view of human nature.
By the way, the act I witnessed today was jaywalking. Everybody was standing patiently at the crosswalk until I started jaywalking at which point everyone followed me across the street. Yeah, I know it's dangerous but Nietzsche would have been proud of me for being the superman of the financial district.
I sure hope herd behavior explains why so many people are defending Roman Polanski because anything else would be disturbing. http://www.seattlepi.com/tvguide/410658_tvgif30.html I mean I know why Woody Allen is defending him but what about everybody else? You know it's entirely possible to be a great artist and a horrible human being and let's be honest the only movie of his that can really be called "great" is Chinatown.
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