If Everyone Jumps off a Cliff, will You?

This article is yet another addition to the hoard of articles already out there on the film about the Holy Prophet (SAW) and the reaction (often violent) to its premiere. No, I'm not going to talk about how terrible the filmmakers are, or condemn the equally terrible reaction to it. I will however, talk about us, the apparently 'educated' elite who very snootily brush aside the burnings, killing and all-round violence in retaliation to the film as something 'A minority does' and 'We would never do such a thing' and 'We're enlightened and much better than that' and 'Oh, be a dear and pass the Earl Grey dah'ling. I got Jeeves to gather some turnips from the estate. Do forgive me if they're a bit off-colour; bloody peasants are too lazy to put any effort into their well being'.

"Egad! What ruffian dares put me, Sir Harold of Bigsby on this ghastly whats-its-name blog?"

Taken from: http://www.straighterline.com/blog/post.cfm/what-do-rich-people-think-about-online-learning

I put forward the hypothesis that given the right (or wrong, depending on how you see the whole issue) settings and triggers, we, the people who like to think of ourselves as too refined, la di da and above such base acts can be just as shameless and animal-like as the people we so readily condemn as not 'one of us'.

So who exactly are these men (and women) painting the town red (in flames)? Are they all violent psychopaths who start their day with 'Fire, Water, Burn' ringing on their alarm clocks, eat babies for lunch and shoot adorable puppies 'because the Son of Sam tells us to'? Or are they Anarachists? Or highly trained foreign Agent Provocateurs? Or just thugs? No, they're normal people, possibly low-level members of a political party (sprinkled with a few of the above individuals), possibly from a slightly lower income strata, but not low enough to not have access to a working internet connection and hence, this blog. They are on the whole nice, slightly dyspepsic individuals who like Cricket, ice cream and Pakoras. They have hopes, dreams and ambitions like us. They're also very passionate about certain issues, like their Prophet (SAW), the state of the country etc. In fact, they're getting sick and tired of and frustrated with our country's and Ummah's situation and want change. All that frustration is building up in them and is near tipping point. But they're not murderers or arsonists. Then what causes them to go nuts? Do they all just simultaneously go absolutely bonkers and coincidentally meet up in the streets to throw a big tantrum? No, it's those sinister individuals and groups (Read: The Man) up there who charge them up via obscure logic and fiery speeches and direct their anger to a tangible object (like a US Consulate) and convince them that their violence will yield results or at the very least, let them have a good ol' fashioned smashing (pun intended) time adn let it all out. And suddenly, these normal, friendly neighbourhood citizens are transformed into raving lunatics. Why?

What I'm talking about isn't new, it's an extensively studied psychological phenomenon called Herd Mentality. Monkey see, monkey do. It's when we yield to peer pressure. We exhibit much milder forms of this extremism in our taste in clothes, food, vocabulary etc. Of course, since that doesn't affect the world and isn't brought into the limelight by the media, we miss the connection (Unless you're a hipster. Then that fact is paraded by the media and your very existence depends on the fact that you go with the flow of going against the flow, something like Shane McGowan constantly bickering with The Pogues. See what I pulled off there? ;) )

And I say that if everyone else in your group of friends is doing it, so will you. Even if its something as terrible as murder. Except when you do it (God Forbid), you'll be calling it heroic. Remember Abu Ghraib, lynching in the early 20th century in the US, the London Riots? Heck, when the Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks in the Stanley Cup finals (Ice Hockey), the city of Vancouver pulled a city of Karachi! And at least we riot for lack of electricity and other important stuff! We all like instant gratification. We don't have the patience to see change through to the end. We can't accept the fact that our efforts may not yield fruit in our lifetime, or even at all. We forget that we will get our reward in the afterlife, inshaAllah. And that is because of a lack of patience and faith in Allah SWT.
I'd like to talk about an incident that I witnessed a few years back. It was a football final between my school and another. Both are prestigious schools (despite the jokes we make about them) where we have top students of Karachi enrolled. Anyway, my school was losing and a storm was brewing in the spectators on our side. Things reached fever pitch when a couple of guys on our side filled a bottle with urine and threw it at the other school's spectators. Sure it was just 2 guys but it was really a culmination of our anger and shame. While we all condemned it then, when you hear many people recount that episode now, its with a hint of a smile and fondness and not with overt disgust. Point is, throwing a bottle of urine is something we'd never do or condone any day of the week. But it happened. We become irrational when things heat up.
There's an incident in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, where a mob gathers outside the town lawyer's office to lynch a black man. It's a small town so the people who make up the mob are well known to the lawyer, Mr. Atticus Finch. In fact, he's even helped some of them out (one of them being a Mr. Cunningham) and is well respected in the town. The mob is inadvertently diffused by the presence of Atticus' daughter. After the mob disperses, Atticus tells his daughter, 
“A mob's always made up of people, no matter what. Mr. Cunningham was part of a mob last night, but he was still a man. Every mob in every little Southern town is always made up of people you know--doesn't say much for them, does it?"
Phil Zimbardo, an eminent psychologist who has contributed a lot to our knowledge of herd mentality conducted an infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, where:
Twenty-four male students out of 75 were selected to take on randomly assigned roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison situated in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. The participants adapted to their roles well beyond Zimbardo's expectations, as the guards enforced authoritarian measures and ultimately subjected some of the prisoners to psychological torture. Many of the prisoners passively accepted psychological abuse and, at the request of the guards, readily harassed other prisoners who attempted to prevent it. The experiment even affected Zimbardo himself, who, in his role as the superintendent, permitted the abuse to continue. Two of the prisoners quit the experiment early and the entire experiment was abruptly stopped after only six days. (Source: Wikipedia)
24 males were conditioned to become sadists. And they were university students, just like us. Who's to say that we can't fall into the same trap?
Here's an interesting TED talk (more pertinent to the male gender) by Zimbardo who says that one reason all this violence exists is because of our addiction to being high. And that may lead to 'the demise of guys', as the video is called.
http://www.ted.com/talks/zimchallenge.html

I'd like to conclude with the following:
1. All that violence could also be you. Guard against letting your emotions override reason.
2. Every irrational decision you make, you're edging one step closer to this insanity. And we all are    irrational regularly.
3. If we get a charismatic leader who promises us quick results (Like the all new Ariel that also promises quick results), be wary (By results, I mean anything that makes us feel good, like the feeling that we're united, or that change has begun, not necessarily meeting the objectives we set out to achieve in the first place, in this case, a banning of the film). Germany made that mistake with Hitler.
4. Be strong. Don't let your friends change you for the worse. If you feel they will,  try to change your friends. If you feel you can't do that, change your friends. Trust me, you'll thank me later on.