The Psychology of the Mob - Literature review Example

Critique of the Journal Mobs and Monsters: Independent Man Meets Paulsgrove Woman Unit Steph Lawler of the of Durham in his journal, Mobs and Monsters: Independent Man meets Paulsgrove Woman presents a scenario in which he analyzes the implications of mob justice. The article analyzes the riots in Paulsgrove in Portsmouth featuring the horrific incidence that was committed by the rioters. The target for the riots is seen to be women. The mob psychology has been used to make the riots legitimate. On the other hand, there is the emergence of gender and social class in the mob setup. Lawler’s journal lacks coherence, flow of ideas and has employed a complex construction. The concept of ‘mob’ is an old thing. Crowds have an influence that is not clearly understood of its origin. As observed by Walkerdine and Blackman, understanding the behavior and the thoughts of the masses is a complex affair (Lawler 2000). The author cites that no equivocation is necessary so that the crowd can be turned into a mob. The idea of the Paulsgrove women seeking to get support for the campaign targeting sexual abusers was not calculative since they negated the influence of the mob. The overall effect of the crowd psychology gets to the women, they are easily recruited to mob and are also potential targets. Another issue that has been addressed in the journal is the aspect of lack of rationality. As le Bon describes the concept of lack of rationality, there are no long discussions that have been initiated due to the involvement of concepts that are abstract such as the rule of raw, principles and irony. The condemnation on the newspapers on the extent to which the Paulgrove protestors acted was not in any way fair. They were branded as people who fail to understand yet the reality is that there are much of the child abuse that has been happening across neighborhoods. There is much ignorance that is demonstrated when demonstrators begin protesting in the presence of the child molesters without their awareness. The pulsgrove demonstrations proved that the character of demonstrations is usually associated with lack of reasoning; this is the aspect that drives to the mob mentality. This acts as a psychological way of doing things in which the mob is influenced by their emotions to think and act in a certain way. In these protests, the suggestions, and the push made by the press acted as the reinforcement that made the demonstrators to be more aggressive. Lack of engagement in some form of aggression is usually treated as lack of rationality. Despite the view that feminity is gaining roots, some of its aspects are wrong. According to Walkerdine’s arguments, the women that are in the working class seems to be in a different relationship to the whole concept of pathologization. The view that working women are taken with is not in any case impressive, they are usually treated as foreign and have the capacity to repel what they are told. Another view addressed is not only women having wrong traits but also them having wrong mothering abilities. The revelations from the Balhan demonstrations indicate that children were also used b ty their mothers in the demonstrations. Unfortunately, at some point some children were neglected, for example, one of the Paulsgrove protestors left their three-year old son naked in the streets. When demonstrations employ the wrong kind of resistance, which is somehow detrimental to the entire aspect of voicing their concerns. The authors points out that the big question that should arise is the person who should be speaking as opposed to who is listening. Meaning that there may be listeners but the mob psychology may not allow a single individual to voice their concerns. Evaluation The introductory part of the journal is deficient and fails to some extent to demonstrate clarity. The author has presented diverse ideas some of which are intertwined while others lack a systematic approach. For example, even before the author introduces the topic fully, he goes ahead to provide their personal opinions, that is, “I want to emphasize that it was not about the participants….” (Lawler 2002) This indicates that the author already makes the reader to think in accordance to their perception instead of leaving them to make their own judgment. Otherwise, such a proposition could have appeared at the conclusions or recommendations section of the paper. However, the paragraph arrangement throughout the introduction has been well done to carry each a specific idea. In addition, there is a smart link that has been formed between the ideas that are presented in the paragraphs, one idea gives way to the other. The concept of feminity as addressed by other authors also features in her work (Adkins 2005; Power 2011). The discussion that ensues in Lawler’s journal lacks coherence. It seems difficult to follow through a given idea throughout a paragraph, the end of the paragraph acts as the indicator that an idea has been addressed. The use of large quotations makes the flow of ideas difficult and lack of focus easily ensues. A good example is the quotation of le Bon on various occasions. In such instances, a summary of the main ideas could serve better compared to the use of quotations. When talking about lack of rationality in the demonstrations, the author fails in various areas. Instead of getting the reader to understand what they are talking about, he goes straight ahead to give an almost irrelevant statement on how the strategy employed by broadsheets in reporting protests. Looking at the second paragraph of the ‘lack of rationality’ section, one can easily induce that there is no systematic approach between the points of discussion in the previous paragraph. Instead of giving a background of the quotations or giving an explanation, some quotes have been left hanging. However, the author demonstrates their prowess through the mastery of vocabulary and sentence construction. The author it tactical in the way that he delivers his work. It has been neatly arranged in various sections that bear a specific meaning, which is explained at the beginning of the section. The section labelled ‘lack of rationality’ relates the contribution of rationality, its lack and the mob psychology that is the main center of focus in the journal (Gornick 1977). Whereas the writer has primarily focused on the case of Paulsgrove to deliver his idea, it is important to acknowledge the fact that he took a multidimensional approach in handling the issue at hand. It is indeed agreeable that Paulsgrove’s case was a good representation of wrong kind of femininity. In this particular case the protests were branded derogatory terms such as mob rule, lynch mob mentality among others. This was because the class of women who participated were not “socially accepted” as the voice of the society. This has been the case in many parts of the world especially in the developing countries where women are still under oppression. However, on the other hand, women from the influential societal status are able to show their anger through protests without necessarily being branded as mob. One of the historic cases was the Miss America Pageant protest that happened late 60s (Sawhney 2013). Although the pageants had a worthy course of demonstration, the demonstration caught the attention of the pageant organizers and appropriate action taken perhaps because the women belonged to the “right kind of femininity.” This is in agreement with the author’s argument about the type of femininity being a pivotal part of any society. Besides using Paulsgrove protester’s case to prove his point, the author was careful enough to present a contrasting example of Balham women protest. According to this case, the protest was termed as “understandable” simply because the protesting women belonged to elite social class. Whereas such cases are rare to find, perhaps the author could have provided more examples of similar protests. What the author fails to capture, though, is the placement of protests orchestrated by women in arab region where the place of women in the society is questionable. It is undeniable that women in the Arab region survive in a male dominated society. Therefore, the kinds of protests in such regions may not be treated with the same lens of investigation with protests from developed societies where women are held with high regard. For instance, whereas women in Newcastle would be protesting about arguably small issue such as “breastfeeding protest,” women in Egypt and Libya played a central role in the protests aimed at ending poor leadership and oppression (iTv website 2014, pg 1). However, Paulsgrove protester’s case has not been put in the correct perspective in regard to such socio-phenomena hence questioning the author’s scope of argument. In conclusion, the journal presents diverse ideas about gender involvement, participation, and challenges. However, the mode of presentation of the gender is somehow complex. The precise gender aspects being addressed are not readily identifiable. For gender studies, I would not recommend this piece of work. However, it derives its advantages in that it consults a number of sources as well as quotes extensively. The quotation has been overdone hence the ideas of the author have been submerged in other author’s thought. This indicates that the author’s contribution is limited. Another aspect identified in the journal is the complex construct that makes the journal difficult to understand. The arrangement of thoughts is also not well aligned hence the journal lacks coherence. References Adkins, L. (2005). Introduction: Feminism, Bourdieu and after. The Sociological Review, Vol 52. British Library (n.d) Timeline of the Women’s liberation movement. Retrieved from http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/sisterhood/timeline.html Gornick, V. (1977) Essays in Feminism. New York: Harper & Row iTv website (2014) protests after woman labelled ‘tramp’ for breastfeeding. Retrieved from http://www.itv.com/news/story/2014-03-15/breastfeeding-protests-criticism-online-tramp/ Lawler, S. (2000) Mothering the self: mothers, daughters, subjects. Psychology Press. Lawler, S. (2002) Mobs and monsters: Independent man meets Paulsgrove woman, Sage Publications. Napikoski, L. (n.d) Feminists at the Miss America pageant. retrieved from http://womenshistory.about.com/od/feminism/a/miss_america_protest.htm Power, C. (2011). Silent no more: The women of Arab revolutions. Retrieved from http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2059435,00.html Sawhney, V. (2013) The women’s liberation movement of the 1960s. retrieved from http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/_notes/GrrlSmarts/sawhney.html Read More