NotHardUp1
What? Me? Really?
After watching part of An American Crime, about the torture and murder of Sylvia Likens in Indianapolis, Indiana, I read up a bit more on the victim and the events. She was termporarily abandoned with her sister by her parents who were carnies. The parents went off to the East Coast to work carnivals with their young sons while their daughters were left with an acquaintance who promised to board them for $20 per week. Unsuprisingly, the payments dwindled and the acquaintance began tormenting the girls as venting of her anger. The abuse eventually turned to the older daughter only, evidently out of jealousy, the "caretaker" woman having many children of her own and divorced three times.
Over three months in 1965, the girl was tortured, imprisoned, beaten, and starved to death. All that is shocking, but with precedents from other abusive "caregivers" and "parents" who were sadistic and cruel in other such cases.
The distinction in the Likens case was the participation by the children in the home plus outsider abuse by juvenile friends of the family. It was a very dark chapter in the history of humans, but it didn't involve insanity. Repeated examinations of the "caregiver" proved that she was not insane, only mean. The woman and the youths were tried collectively in one case, having acted in concert to murder the girl. All but one were convicted of either first-degree murder, or manslaughter.
All that is prelude. The topic is herd mentality, sometimes referred to as pack mentality. As I read those words, I was immediately taken back to my elementary school days, and the hurt I felt as I increasingly observed it in children around me. Cruel behaviors abounded, and it was noticeable that the same children were decent when one-on-one, but were something different altogether when there was group bullying on the playground, in the neighborhood, at sports events, wherever.
Later, I heard much of peer pressure, but that didn't actually fit the behavior. The children were not being pressured to conform with the cruelty of the pack, but were opting to do so in order to seek acceptance and status within the pack.
The last time I taught high school, in the late 1990's, I again directly observed savage behavior among teens, who, as a mob, participated in cheering and rallying to a vicious fight, enjoying it and encouraging it and recording it as an entertaining event. I broke up the same fight, but was shaken by the horror of the enthusiasm by teens for such brutality.
The Likens case has been compared with Golding's Lord of the Flies. I admit, I've always liked that novel because I thought it told the truth about humanity, if a bit contrived.
From a philosophical point of view, many today espouse the idea that only demented or deficient people do violence. My experience is quite the opposite. Normal people willingly participate in violence and/or cruel acts even as young children, and are only governed or mitigated by social mores.
What do you think? What herd mentality or pack behavior did you observe as a child.
For the sake of psychology and topic, let's keep the political aspersions out of this unless you personally witnessed something like that directly, as a youth or child.
Over three months in 1965, the girl was tortured, imprisoned, beaten, and starved to death. All that is shocking, but with precedents from other abusive "caregivers" and "parents" who were sadistic and cruel in other such cases.
The distinction in the Likens case was the participation by the children in the home plus outsider abuse by juvenile friends of the family. It was a very dark chapter in the history of humans, but it didn't involve insanity. Repeated examinations of the "caregiver" proved that she was not insane, only mean. The woman and the youths were tried collectively in one case, having acted in concert to murder the girl. All but one were convicted of either first-degree murder, or manslaughter.
All that is prelude. The topic is herd mentality, sometimes referred to as pack mentality. As I read those words, I was immediately taken back to my elementary school days, and the hurt I felt as I increasingly observed it in children around me. Cruel behaviors abounded, and it was noticeable that the same children were decent when one-on-one, but were something different altogether when there was group bullying on the playground, in the neighborhood, at sports events, wherever.
Later, I heard much of peer pressure, but that didn't actually fit the behavior. The children were not being pressured to conform with the cruelty of the pack, but were opting to do so in order to seek acceptance and status within the pack.
The last time I taught high school, in the late 1990's, I again directly observed savage behavior among teens, who, as a mob, participated in cheering and rallying to a vicious fight, enjoying it and encouraging it and recording it as an entertaining event. I broke up the same fight, but was shaken by the horror of the enthusiasm by teens for such brutality.
The Likens case has been compared with Golding's Lord of the Flies. I admit, I've always liked that novel because I thought it told the truth about humanity, if a bit contrived.
From a philosophical point of view, many today espouse the idea that only demented or deficient people do violence. My experience is quite the opposite. Normal people willingly participate in violence and/or cruel acts even as young children, and are only governed or mitigated by social mores.
What do you think? What herd mentality or pack behavior did you observe as a child.
For the sake of psychology and topic, let's keep the political aspersions out of this unless you personally witnessed something like that directly, as a youth or child.
