..." How to withstand beatings, How to hold back tears? How to gather willpower, How not to run away from the crowd? How not to scream in anger, How not to bite your lips until they bleed? How to hide fear, so as not to show weakness. Surrounded by a rabid crowd, Surrounded by barbarians , Covered in beatings, flowing blood And burned with coals. A non-religious person believes in God Not like a judge, he is different, And for this he is beaten to death A pathetic, weak outcast. Alyosha Tikhy An ordinary story: someone in the public space expressed an opinion that the “progressive” public did not like. And now off we go: buckets of dirt and insults poured out, everyone comes up with their own version of what motivates the author of the statement - and, of course, the author’s motives, a priori, cannot be honest and noble, he is necessarily driven by “selfish” interest , has definitely sold out to someone, is certainly lying, etc. And it’s not even a matter of how right or wrong the person being condemned is. Even if he’s not right (although who can act as a criterion of truth?)! He expressed an opinion. Doesn't he have the right? “It has,” any sane person will say. But what do we see in reality? Even if the action takes place in virtual space, the mechanism is the same, collective persecution begins, where everyone (including, just this morning, the “sane ones”) considers it their duty to become sophisticated in nasty wit and “ hit" harder. The sad thing is that this aggressive reaction has nothing to do with thinking and expressing a personal position. The syndrome of an angry crowd, which is driven by only one thing - to pour out resentmental rage on a nearby object - that's all there is here. The crowd has found a “victim”, and now it will kick it with all the passion and pleasure until all the ardor dries up . But why do completely normal, sensible, not-so-evil people begin to behave so bestially? The explanation for this is monstrously banal: people need to feel like they belong to a group. And of course - to the group of “right-wingers” (i.e. those who think correctly). All the fear and anxiety of the possibility of being rejected, thrown out, in isolation, results in aggression against the “stranger.” The aggression, by the way, is stronger, the stronger the doubt - after all, doubt is very difficult to endure, you have to crush it. For such a “betrayal” of himself, the average person unleashes his anger even more fiercely on the “culprit” of his doubts and hesitations. A well-known phenomenon, by the way: you can remember that the most evil and furious fascists during Hitler’s time were half-breed Jews - it was especially important for them to show how fiercely they hated Jews. Or something that also often surprises historians: it turns out that during pogroms and massacres of people, it is the kind and sweet neighbors and friends - just yesterday - who are especially rampant. The pleasure in collective bullying is enhanced by the fact that no one in the crowd bears individual responsibility for what happens. The most serious problem of a person is to be able to REALLY have his own opinion, to allow himself doubts, and not to be a reflector and spokesman (sometimes rabid, thoughtless) of the opinions of his reference group. Perhaps this is what makes a person a HUMAN, and not a “people” element of the crowd.