Mob Mentality

On Remembrance Sunday a 19 year old boy was arrested by police.  For shoplifting maybe, a drunken brawl?  No.   No doubt in an effort to look “hard” in front of his friends, he had burned a plastic poppy and put a picture of it on Facebook, with a disparaging remark about “squaddies”.  He was arrested under the Malicious Communications Act.

Was he an idiot.  Yes.  Was it completely disrespectful.  Yes.  Should he have been arrested for it?  Absolutely not.  I think what worries me even more than his arrest, is the fact that someone in his friends list, because let’s not forget that it was posted on Facebook, not Twitter, reported him to the police.  That someone actually thought that what he had done should and must be illegal, scares me just as much as his arrest.

The arrest on Sunday fuelled many conversations I had on Monday, but the most memorable of which spanned throughout the course of the day.  The person whom I was speaking to thought that it was right that the boy be arrested and that in his opinion, he should be locked in a room full of squaddies to “teach him a lesson”.  

To be honest, this is the opinion I have come to expect from the mob mentality.  Threaten first, think later.  When it becomes dangerous is when it becomes punch first and think later or becomes a pack of vigilantes who don’t think at all.

By the end of the conversation (I do confess I was banging my head against a wall by the end) he suggested that an appropriate punishment would be community service for a charity.  Whilst I still do not agree that the boy should have been arrested at all, the conversation had got me thinking.

The mob mentality.  An individual is smart and will listen to reason, a mob will listen to no one.  The person I spoke to went from saying that the boy deserved to be beaten up by a group of “squaddies” to moving towards a community service order by the end of the day.  If the conversation had been myself and a group of people who all thought the same way he did at the start, their position would not have changed. 

The problem with these arrests is simple.  This is going to escalate.  Unless questions are asked and changes are made, this is going to escalate to a point where you have to be vigilant as to what you say, who you sa it to, what you do, how you act.  If this happens, what did they actually fight for in the First and Second World Wars?  Because freedom is about choice, not restriction.

The boy was arrested and released on bail, pending further investigations.  I understand that a QC has volunteered to represent him for free should the matter go to Court.  

Stepping Backwards - Mini Rant

Over the centuries wars have been fought, campaigns have been launched and banners have been waved; all in the name of our rights.

Our right to be free, the women's right to vote; freedom of speech; decriminalisation of homosexuality; the woman's rights to her own body; the list is endless.  Although some issues are still being argued and there are rights that are still to be won, we have been taking steps in the right direction over recent decades.

 

I look around now though in 2012 and in some areas, we seem to be taking steps back.  The Big Brother society that George Orwell wrote about in 1984 is not a merely a figment of imagination, it is in some respects, peeking around the corner. 

Freedom of speech for example, which day by day seems to turning into freedom of speech, but only for nice people, or people who agree with your point of view.  But then, we are plebs aren't we?  What do we know?

Then we have religion and it's interference with the State.  I don't dispute anyone's right to have religious beliefs, but I would argue against any one religion having influence over the running of the country.  Although I'm an atheist, I'm sure that Muslims, Sikhs etc would also wholly disagree with the Church having any influence or capacity over laws and how the country is run. 

I saw the story of a 10 year old boy recently who, 10 months after joining, was removed from the Scouts on the basis that he wouldn't swear the Scout Promise of "doing their duty by God".  It seems that in order to learn to tie knots that you need religion.

Be who you want to be and say what you think is slowly but surely turning into "Say the right thing, have the right opinion, know your position as a pleb and be religious or else".

Personally, I say what I think and if "they" don't like it, they can shove it.  If that makes me guilty of hate crime, well then so be it.