The Psychology of the Crowd

The whole issue is that there’s just nothing going on up there.

These guys are just aggressors looking for any tiny excuse to let it all out. The actual trigger? It’s usually something else entirely—maybe they're frustrated by bad sex, a messy breakup, constant nagging at home, a dead-end job, people laughing at them, or just their own sheer stupidity and incompetence...

Kyle Wright5 said:These guys are just aggressors looking for any tiny excuse to let it all out. The actual trigger? It’s usually something else entirely—maybe they're frustrated by bad sex, a messy breakup, constant nagging at home, a dead-end job, people laughing at them, or just their own sheer stupidity and incompetence...

Or quite simply, a lack of intelligence. 😉

Jeffrey Edwards5 said:Alright experts, can someone give me a bit more depth on this beyond the basic "someone screams and everyone else joins in" explanation?

Man, these topics always get interesting. Trust me, I’m not one to follow the herd; I’m usually just looking for my exit strategy. Take a kid who starts picking on a classmate—suddenly you have twenty other kids backing him up just because they want to look cool and fit in. I actually saw a fascinating segment about this kind of social conformity over at Galilee recently. It showed two guys just staring up at the sky, and before long, a whole group had joined them. People are social creatures by nature, and we all have this drive to belong, which often means just echoing whatever the majority thinks. I know, I know—people always get annoyed when I suggest that the consensus might be totally wrong, but that's just how it is.🤷

She’s lucky to be standing at all... I find myself applying that same logic quite often, though I must admit, it hasn't always been kind to my health—there were even moments where it felt like my life was on the line. People will fight over just about anything, trying to convince themselves of their own delusions... but frankly, very few people possess the grit to actually look the truth in the eye, let alone subject themselves to an experiment by turning their own existence into a mere test subject. I suppose it takes a certain breed of artist to handle that sort of thing; only the most courageous and truly passionate souls, I think. In short, true artists 😍

There was this one old woman once;

If you truly want to understand the essence of a person, simply grant them power.

p.s. You might want to look into the Stanford prison experiment... decades later, they are still conducting variations of it and, predictably, shutting them down mid-way. It is almost hard to wrap one's head around the fact that professionals in these fields would engage in such nonsense 😵, but that is the reality of it, whether one finds it believable or not 😉

you’re only lashing out because you’re cut from the exact same cloth

but honestly, whatever—we’re all just flawed human beings at the end of the day...

I really want to believe that not everyone out there is inherently "evil"😁
As for the whole violence and sadism thing, I honestly feel like we all have a tiny little bit of that darkness tucked away inside us somewhere, don't you think?
For instance, I definitely don't think every single person in that video above is some kind of monster or a total sadist, and when it comes to those folks who managed to escape, I suspect it was more about pure, unadulterated panic—just people being absolutely terrified by what they’d done and running for their lives as fast as they could!

I honestly think that when things get this intense, all that repressed stuff just starts bubbling to the surface. You've got all this aggression people aimed at them, those raw emotions they had to bottle up just to avoid looking "weird" or being cast out by society, and those deep-seated fears—it all comes flooding back. It’s not that they’re bad people by nature, not at all, but in moments like these, they just get hijacked by these overwhelming forces. Whether they let it out in a way that looks beautiful or totally ugly, they're really just releasing everything they've been holding in. In a weird way, it's the only time they actually seem to be acting in alignment with who they truly are.

casualcanyon3 said:.."the artist gave the public total freedom to do whatever they wanted with her, without any accountability."

I think that’s really the crux of it. Add to that the fact that it was carried out by a massive crowd... people act differently in a mob. Individuals who wouldn't dare do anything on their own get swept up in the collective madness...

No accountability, no consequences.
The fear of facing a punishment that doesn't fit the crime is a huge deterrent to acting at all.
There’s a reason we have laws and enforcement agencies in this country...

Everything in nature follows certain rules and laws. Humans aren't some exception to the rule. It's just necessary...

How much of a person do you think is actually gray?

A person is as "gray" as they allow themselves to be.
In cases like the one we're discussing, people are making conscious choices. They know exactly how much damage they're causing...

I’ve never really bought into this idea that humans are inherently sadistic. I don't walk around feeling an instinctive dread of my surroundings, and honestly, I’ve never once felt that creeping sense of insecurity or fear—not even when walking home alone in the dead of night. If there were actual reasons to be terrified, I’m pretty sure that over the years, I would have picked up on something in the words or actions of the people around me that signaled I should be on high alert. But I haven't. Maybe once or twice, I've caught a vibe from someone that they just lacked empathy, or that they got a little too much of a kick out of being cruel. But compared to everyone else I know? It’s negligible. Though, I do notice that certain parts of the world seem "denser" with these cold, unfeeling, sociopathic types who thrive on antisocial mob mentalities. Why is that? Is it because certain environments tolerate deviant behavior more easily, is it purely genetic, or is it something else entirely? Who knows, I’m hardly an expert.

Also, seeing how a few individuals acted toward the end of the "performance" doesn't actually prove anything. That whole setup might have just attracted the wrong crowd; extreme social experiments often act like magnets for sociopaths and psychopaths. I really feel like I need a more detailed breakdown of this study. Was there a massive surge where almost everyone turned on her, or was it just a handful of outliers—like 10 out of 100? There’s just too little information to go on...

Drew Lee3 said:I’ve never really bought into this idea that humans are inherently sadistic. I don't walk around feeling an instinctive dread of my surroundings, and honestly, I’ve never once felt that creeping sense of insecurity or fear—not even when walking home alone in the dead of night. If there were actual reasons to be terrified, I’m pretty sure that over the years, I would have picked up on something in the words or actions of the people around me that signaled I should be on high alert. But I haven't. Maybe once or twice, I've caught a vibe from someone that they just lacked empathy, or that they got a little too much of a kick out of being cruel. But compared to everyone else I know? It’s negligible. Though, I do notice that certain parts of the world seem "denser" with these cold, unfeeling, sociopathic types who thrive on antisocial mob mentalities. Why is that? Is it because certain environments tolerate deviant behavior more easily, is it purely genetic, or is it something else entirely? Who knows, I’m hardly an expert.

Also, seeing how a few individuals acted toward the end of the "performance" doesn't actually prove anything. That whole setup might have just attracted the wrong crowd; extreme social experiments often act like magnets for sociopaths and psychopaths. I really feel like I need a more detailed breakdown of this study. Was there a massive surge where almost everyone turned on her, or was it just a handful of outliers—like 10 out of 100? There’s just too little information to go on...

From what I gathered, the crowd split roughly down the middle. Toward the conclusion, someone actually forced a gun into her hand and attempted to pull the trigger by pressing down on her finger, essentially trying to make her shoot herself. Someone else in the crowd managed to wrestle the weapon away, which then triggered a full-blown brawl between those attempting to protect her and those who were actively harming her.

I find it hard to believe that this performance can be compared to those extreme social situations that attract particular sociopaths, primarily because art events are generally attended by people who exist within those specific cultural circles; it’s highly unlikely that, say, a dockworker from the local shipyard would just wander into a performance piece like this. 😁 It’s just far more probable that they wouldn't even be following such happenings in the first place.
And frankly, I have no idea whether the attendees knew exactly what they were walking into before the performance began.

Lawrence Bailey77 said:She’s lucky to be standing at all... I find myself applying that same logic quite often, though I must admit, it hasn't always been kind to my health—there were even moments where it felt like my life was on the line. People will fight over just about anything, trying to convince themselves of their own delusions... but frankly, very few people possess the grit to actually look the truth in the eye, let alone subject themselves to an experiment by turning their own existence into a mere test subject. I suppose it takes a certain breed of artist to handle that sort of thing; only the most courageous and truly passionate souls, I think. In short, true artists 😍

There was this one old woman once;

If you truly want to understand the essence of a person, simply grant them power.

p.s. You might want to look into the Stanford prison experiment... decades later, they are still conducting variations of it and, predictably, shutting them down mid-way. It is almost hard to wrap one's head around the fact that professionals in these fields would engage in such nonsense 😵, but that is the reality of it, whether one finds it believable or not 😉

Thanks for the link; I actually sat down and looked through both that and the Milgram study! 🙂

casualcanyon3 said:From what I gathered, the crowd split roughly down the middle. Toward the conclusion, someone actually forced a gun into her hand and attempted to pull the trigger by pressing down on her finger, essentially trying to make her shoot herself. Someone else in the crowd managed to wrestle the weapon away, which then triggered a full-blown brawl between those attempting to protect her and those who were actively harming her.

I find it hard to believe that this performance can be compared to those extreme social situations that attract particular sociopaths, primarily because art events are generally attended by people who exist within those specific cultural circles; it’s highly unlikely that, say, a dockworker from the local shipyard would just wander into a performance piece like this. 😁 It’s just far more probable that they wouldn't even be following such happenings in the first place.
And frankly, I have no idea whether the attendees knew exactly what they were walking into before the performance began.

So, fifty-fifty. That’s interesting. I guess that means we can't just write off human nature as being purely evil and twisted. But seriously, the whole thing sounds surreal—someone pointing a gun at her in public, forcing her finger onto the trigger to try and make her pull it? And then the "good guys" and "bad guys" start brawling because one side wants to keep causing pain while the other wants to stop it? All of this happening out in the open in broad daylight? It sounds wild. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but at first glance, it just feels... well, as I said, unbelievable.
Today was my first time hearing about this specific experiment, though I've read about her before.

Oh, and regarding the Milgram experiment, I read somewhere that about half of the people playing the researcher role dropped out entirely. And many of those who stuck it out didn't look like they were having any fun at all; some of them were visibly shrinking back into their chairs. Plus, let's not forget that a good chunk of the participants might have realized the "student" was just an actor and that they weren't actually delivering real electric shocks...
I definitely wouldn't jump to conclusions about human nature that easily.

I read somewhere that her final experiment involved staring into people's eyes for 75 days straight while sending them messages of love. Apparently, it moved a lot of people to tears. It makes me wonder... if someone had approached her during this first experiment intending to cause pain, would that last experiment have "softened" them instead? I think so. People show up tired, or angry, or maybe they've just been treated poorly by the world. Then they find themselves sitting next to a human being who genuinely wants the best for them—someone looking right into their soul. I believe that would break through the defenses. They wouldn't even want to hurt her. That might be the proof we need that human nature is fundamentally good at its core.

Since becoming a mother recently, I find myself thinking about human nature quite often—especially how we start out. All I see is goodness. This innate craving for attention, love, and patience. What looks like "malice" on the surface usually just comes from a misunderstanding of the world around us and a desperate need to have our basic needs met.

Hazen said:So, I was falling down a rabbit hole recently looking into Marina Abramović, and I ended up stumbling upon one of her most legendary pieces from back in '74—"Rhythm 0."

So, it’s this performance where the artist basically hands total control over to the crowd—zero consequences, zero accountability. She sets out 72 different objects on a table—stuff that could cause pain or pleasure—and tells everyone watching they can do whatever they want to her using those items. For six straight hours, she just stands there, completely motionless. At first, people were pretty hesitant, playing it safe—but by the end? It turned aggressive fast. Once those six hours were up and she finally moved—naked, bleeding, and crying—the audience actually scrambled for the exits. It was like they couldn't handle seeing her suddenly "alive" again, or worse, having to face what they'd actually done to her.

But even that doesn't cut it—not by a long shot. Pure bliss. It’s all about inflicting pain on others—just a total, complete lack of any empathy for someone else's obvious suffering.

I don't even need to dig through history books to prove this—you could find endless examples if you actually bothered to look. Honestly, I can’t think of a single instance where someone with actual power didn't eventually turn it against someone weaker or totally helpless. It's just how it works. They have the leverage, they take it, and deep down? They absolutely love it.

Watching this performance, I can't shake this one thought—it’s kind of stuck in my head. Aside from the fact that humans clearly get a kick out of inflicting pain, we seem to express our rawest curiosity through violence. It’s like this creepy little game where people just want to see what happens if they push things too far—just a "let's see what breaks" kind of mentality. It's pretty grim.

Look, you can't argue with the facts—when a huge chunk of people finally let go of their moral compass, they turn into straight-up monsters. It’s enough to make you wonder if this whole "human nature" thing is just a polite way of describing a collective descent into madness.

How do you guys actually deal with the realization that violence is just baked into being human? Like, do you try to convince yourselves that it’s not our true nature—that we're somehow better than that? Or if you don't buy that crap, how do you function? Are you just totally numb to it all? Do you just shrug your shoulders and go about your business like nothing happened?

How much do you guys think a person is actually worth? I don't even know where to start with this one—it’s just pure chaos. Honestly, looking at the state of things right now, you have to wonder if anyone is actually paying attention or if we're all just drifting aimlessly through the madness. It feels like everything is hitting the fan at once, and frankly, I'm exhausted just watching it unfold. Just my two cents, though.?

Look, I just want to point out one way of looking at this whole situation—I’ve worked alongside all kinds of artists who pull off all sorts of performances, ranging from the stuff that actually shocks you and keeps things interesting to the total nonsense that doesn't have a single point to it.
Look, they’ve got one massive, glaring issue—they’re basically invisible when it comes to the big money. We're talking zero footprint in terms of actual funding, marketing, or major sponsorships across the entire art scene. To take some of that anxiety off your plate, though—most of these shows are basically rigged from the jump. They’re pre-planned and pre-negotiated just to dodge failure because the market here is so incredibly tiny and stingy. Honestly? I think this piece of hers is a perfect example of exactly that.

Nah, whatever—it’s just about how you send the damn message, you know? 😉

I gotta admit, I spend way too much time spiraling about the human psyche—specifically when it comes to all the violence and pure destruction baked into our DNA.
Look, it’s easy to just throw our hands up and say violence is hardwired into our DNA—I mean, look at the state of the world, right?—but I always find myself circling back to the way a kid's brain actually works. It’s like this raw, unshaped block of clay. A child doesn't just wake up knowing the difference between right and wrong—it isn't instinctual. They don't get it until someone shows them, or until they're taught. Period.
So I'm sitting here looking at this performance—it’s basically just some high-brow attempt at "education," right? As if they actually have to teach us how to do art or whatever... give me a break.

Look, when you step back and really look at things, animals don't have "evil" in their DNA—everything they do is just following the cycles and the raw rules of nature. But then we humans come along, gifted with this massive intellect that’s supposed to set us apart—you know, the whole "higher evolution and progress" thing—meant to be used for the greater good of everyone. The catch? In way too many cases, we use that brainpower for the exact opposite... pure destruction.
And here’s another thing—no matter how much good and positive stuff gets done, the bad and evil crap will always have a wider, louder impact... How much of those two extremes we actually allow to seep into our own mental wiring basically determines which one ends up surviving in the long run.

Here’s a situation that’s crucial for what I’m getting at... It was about some domestic violence where the father—and I’ll be blunt here—was a straight-up monster, abusing his kids for years, extremely brutal and loud about it. When we asked the neighbors if they knew anything and why they didn't report it, their response was basically that they shouldn't meddle in other people's business and it wasn't their problem, even though they'd admit it was horrific.
One thing specifically bugs me, and honestly, worries me too—looking at how many people on this forum, even in "lighter" situations, run away from stepping up because of this exact excuse, or just out of fear and worry about the fallout from their actions...

The point is—ramping up traits like apathy, indifference, egoism, selfishness, alienation, and asocial behavior, while letting empathy, altruism, responsibility, compassion, and other pro-social behaviors slide, puts us in a spot where we aren't just dropping below the level of functioning animals, but we eventually start viewing every other human being as a threat.

So, my summary is that constant education in these areas is vital—even through sending messages like this, reminding us that we need to stay active in everything happening around us and with the people we can reach. Even though evil exists and always will, we still have the chance to protect ourselves from it, regardless of how it keeps finding its way back.

Hazen said:All in all, the feeling that there are who-knows-how-many potential monsters walking the streets around me makes me want to binge movies like "Life is Beautiful" or "Dances with Wolves" just to "recharge my batteries" somehow. I also feel this weird sense of insecurity.

It's exactly what I was talking about—I don't feel that much fear about being surrounded by those kinds of people, but what really worries me is what happens if it *does* occur and nobody around me reacts or feels the need to jump in and help?

btw, Hazen, great topic... 👍

It's a shame that, for some reason, things aren't more active on this forum lately...

🙂

Nicholas Gonzalez8 said:I honestly think that when things get this intense, all that repressed stuff just starts bubbling to the surface. You've got all this aggression people aimed at them, those raw emotions they had to bottle up just to avoid looking "weird" or being cast out by society, and those deep-seated fears—it all comes flooding back. It’s not that they’re bad people by nature, not at all, but in moments like these, they just get hijacked by these overwhelming forces. Whether they let it out in a way that looks beautiful or totally ugly, they're really just releasing everything they've been holding in. In a weird way, it's the only time they actually seem to be acting in alignment with who they truly are.

I think you're being way too soft here. This specific case is a textbook example of why they aren't "good" people—it's black and white. She gave them total freedom to act how they wanted, and instead, they left her crying and bleeding. You can find excuses for anything, sure, but why didn't they just, say, give her a massage or try to cheer her up with some friendly banter?
This whole performance might be staged like Paul Thompson3 suggested, but even if it isn't, it’s a vivid look at human nature—if someone's weak, people will bully them and dump their frustrations right on their heads.
I don't know what kind of neighborhoods these types run in, but from what I've seen, it doesn't take much. Once someone has a little extra cash or looks like they have an easy life, people start hating them for it—I hear it constantly, just petty jealousy about who bought what or who got a promotion. Take away the fear of getting arrested, and you'll see them turn physical in a heartbeat.

We’re talking about an artist who literally drove knives through the gaps in her own fingers—stabbing herself in the process—and even crawled inside a burning pentagram just to push the absolute limits of physical agony and bodily endurance. When she finally blacked out from the smoke, they had to drag her out before she was consumed by the flames. She framed "Rhythm 0" as a raw experiment, a deliberate moment where she chose to stare death right in the face. Critics often dismiss her as some kind of performance art cliché, but she was quite vocal about her disdain for the movement back in the seventies; she felt most of it was nothing more than a desperate, hollow grab for attention. She, however, is the real deal. There isn't a shred of doubt in my mind that the performance wasn't staged. To fake a performance like that would strip the entire concept of its fundamental meaning. Only someone chasing cheap fame or a quick paycheck would bother staging such a thing, and those people aren't true artists. She lived and breathed this medium.

jadetiger37 said:Look, I just want to point out one way of looking at this whole situation—I’ve worked alongside all kinds of artists who pull off all sorts of performances, ranging from the stuff that actually shocks you and keeps things interesting to the total nonsense that doesn't have a single point to it.
Look, they’ve got one massive, glaring issue—they’re basically invisible when it comes to the big money. We're talking zero footprint in terms of actual funding, marketing, or major sponsorships across the entire art scene. To take some of that anxiety off your plate, though—most of these shows are basically rigged from the jump. They’re pre-planned and pre-negotiated just to dodge failure because the market here is so incredibly tiny and stingy. Honestly? I think this piece of hers is a perfect example of exactly that.

Nah, whatever—it’s just about how you send the damn message, you know? 😉

I gotta admit, I spend way too much time spiraling about the human psyche—specifically when it comes to all the violence and pure destruction baked into our DNA.
Look, it’s easy to just throw our hands up and say violence is hardwired into our DNA—I mean, look at the state of the world, right?—but I always find myself circling back to the way a kid's brain actually works. It’s like this raw, unshaped block of clay. A child doesn't just wake up knowing the difference between right and wrong—it isn't instinctual. They don't get it until someone shows them, or until they're taught. Period.
So I'm sitting here looking at this performance—it’s basically just some high-brow attempt at "education," right? As if they actually have to teach us how to do art or whatever... give me a break.

Look, when you step back and really look at things, animals don't have "evil" in their DNA—everything they do is just following the cycles and the raw rules of nature. But then we humans come along, gifted with this massive intellect that’s supposed to set us apart—you know, the whole "higher evolution and progress" thing—meant to be used for the greater good of everyone. The catch? In way too many cases, we use that brainpower for the exact opposite... pure destruction.
And here’s another thing—no matter how much good and positive stuff gets done, the bad and evil crap will always have a wider, louder impact... How much of those two extremes we actually allow to seep into our own mental wiring basically determines which one ends up surviving in the long run.

Here’s a situation that’s crucial for what I’m getting at... It was about some domestic violence where the father—and I’ll be blunt here—was a straight-up monster, abusing his kids for years, extremely brutal and loud about it. When we asked the neighbors if they knew anything and why they didn't report it, their response was basically that they shouldn't meddle in other people's business and it wasn't their problem, even though they'd admit it was horrific.
One thing specifically bugs me, and honestly, worries me too—looking at how many people on this forum, even in "lighter" situations, run away from stepping up because of this exact excuse, or just out of fear and worry about the fallout from their actions...

The point is—ramping up traits like apathy, indifference, egoism, selfishness, alienation, and asocial behavior, while letting empathy, altruism, responsibility, compassion, and other pro-social behaviors slide, puts us in a spot where we aren't just dropping below the level of functioning animals, but we eventually start viewing every other human being as a threat.

So, my summary is that constant education in these areas is vital—even through sending messages like this, reminding us that we need to stay active in everything happening around us and with the people we can reach. Even though evil exists and always will, we still have the chance to protect ourselves from it, regardless of how it keeps finding its way back.

It's exactly what I was talking about—I don't feel that much fear about being surrounded by those kinds of people, but what really worries me is what happens if it *does* occur and nobody around me reacts or feels the need to jump in and help?

btw, Hazen, great topic... 👍

It's a shame that, for some reason, things aren't more active on this forum lately...

🙂

I’m away from my computer right now, so I can’t provide the deep, granular commentary I’d truly like to give, but let me touch upon this... It strikes me that there is actually a specific psychological phenomenon named after a single instance where a woman was murdered right in front of an apartment building, and almost everyone witnessed the event, yet every single person assumed someone else would be the one to call the police. A strikingly similar tragedy occurred here in the States, where a woman was killed on her balcony right in front of the other residents, and it was only a passerby—someone who wasn't even part of that immediate community—who finally called the authorities. I also recently watched a video on YouTube of a man walking through a city holding a sign that said Fuck The poor, and people were absolutely incensed, hurling insults at him. But when he flipped the sign to Help The poor while asking for spare change, suddenly, nobody gave him a second glance.

By the way, casualcanyon3, this is an excellent topic you've raised... 👍

It is truly a shame that, for whatever reason, the traffic on this PDF forum has become somewhat sluggish lately.

🙂

Thanks... 😉

Freud said it ages ago 😳that civilization is basically just a thin crust keeping us from sinking straight back into pure savagery

wars are the one thing all continents and races actually have in common... they've been constant throughout history... and honestly? they're still going strong today. You gotta have the drive—the actual instinct—for it

Even Native Americans, who everyone's so sympathetic toward, were constantly at each other's throats
I just think once you pile up enough aggression from different sources and motives, you eventually find that trigger to just... go out and hit someone

Eric Sullivan3 said:I really want to believe that not everyone out there is inherently "evil"😁
As for the whole violence and sadism thing, I honestly feel like we all have a tiny little bit of that darkness tucked away inside us somewhere, don't you think?
For instance, I definitely don't think every single person in that video above is some kind of monster or a total sadist, and when it comes to those folks who managed to escape, I suspect it was more about pure, unadulterated panic—just people being absolutely terrified by what they’d done and running for their lives as fast as they could!

Nicholas Gonzalez8 said:I honestly think that when things get this intense, all that repressed stuff just starts bubbling to the surface. You've got all this aggression people aimed at them, those raw emotions they had to bottle up just to avoid looking "weird" or being cast out by society, and those deep-seated fears—it all comes flooding back. It’s not that they’re bad people by nature, not at all, but in moments like these, they just get hijacked by these overwhelming forces. Whether they let it out in a way that looks beautiful or totally ugly, they're really just releasing everything they've been holding in. In a weird way, it's the only time they actually seem to be acting in alignment with who they truly are.

Melissa Sanchez8 said:I think that’s really the crux of it. Add to that the fact that it was carried out by a massive crowd... people act differently in a mob. Individuals who wouldn't dare do anything on their own get swept up in the collective madness...

No accountability, no consequences.
The fear of facing a punishment that doesn't fit the crime is a huge deterrent to acting at all.
There’s a reason we have laws and enforcement agencies in this country...

Everything in nature follows certain rules and laws. Humans aren't some exception to the rule. It's just necessary...

How much of a person do you think is actually gray?

A person is as "gray" as they allow themselves to be.
In cases like the one we're discussing, people are making conscious choices. They know exactly how much damage they're causing...

Drew Lee3 said:I’ve never really bought into this idea that humans are inherently sadistic. I don't walk around feeling an instinctive dread of my surroundings, and honestly, I’ve never once felt that creeping sense of insecurity or fear—not even when walking home alone in the dead of night. If there were actual reasons to be terrified, I’m pretty sure that over the years, I would have picked up on something in the words or actions of the people around me that signaled I should be on high alert. But I haven't. Maybe once or twice, I've caught a vibe from someone that they just lacked empathy, or that they got a little too much of a kick out of being cruel. But compared to everyone else I know? It’s negligible. Though, I do notice that certain parts of the world seem "denser" with these cold, unfeeling, sociopathic types who thrive on antisocial mob mentalities. Why is that? Is it because certain environments tolerate deviant behavior more easily, is it purely genetic, or is it something else entirely? Who knows, I’m hardly an expert.

Also, seeing how a few individuals acted toward the end of the "performance" doesn't actually prove anything. That whole setup might have just attracted the wrong crowd; extreme social experiments often act like magnets for sociopaths and psychopaths. I really feel like I need a more detailed breakdown of this study. Was there a massive surge where almost everyone turned on her, or was it just a handful of outliers—like 10 out of 100? There’s just too little information to go on...

jadetiger37 said:Look, I just want to point out one way of looking at this whole situation—I’ve worked alongside all kinds of artists who pull off all sorts of performances, ranging from the stuff that actually shocks you and keeps things interesting to the total nonsense that doesn't have a single point to it.
Look, they’ve got one massive, glaring issue—they’re basically invisible when it comes to the big money. We're talking zero footprint in terms of actual funding, marketing, or major sponsorships across the entire art scene. To take some of that anxiety off your plate, though—most of these shows are basically rigged from the jump. They’re pre-planned and pre-negotiated just to dodge failure because the market here is so incredibly tiny and stingy. Honestly? I think this piece of hers is a perfect example of exactly that.

Nah, whatever—it’s just about how you send the damn message, you know? 😉

I gotta admit, I spend way too much time spiraling about the human psyche—specifically when it comes to all the violence and pure destruction baked into our DNA.
Look, it’s easy to just throw our hands up and say violence is hardwired into our DNA—I mean, look at the state of the world, right?—but I always find myself circling back to the way a kid's brain actually works. It’s like this raw, unshaped block of clay. A child doesn't just wake up knowing the difference between right and wrong—it isn't instinctual. They don't get it until someone shows them, or until they're taught. Period.
So I'm sitting here looking at this performance—it’s basically just some high-brow attempt at "education," right? As if they actually have to teach us how to do art or whatever... give me a break.

Look, when you step back and really look at things, animals don't have "evil" in their DNA—everything they do is just following the cycles and the raw rules of nature. But then we humans come along, gifted with this massive intellect that’s supposed to set us apart—you know, the whole "higher evolution and progress" thing—meant to be used for the greater good of everyone. The catch? In way too many cases, we use that brainpower for the exact opposite... pure destruction.
And here’s another thing—no matter how much good and positive stuff gets done, the bad and evil crap will always have a wider, louder impact... How much of those two extremes we actually allow to seep into our own mental wiring basically determines which one ends up surviving in the long run.

Here’s a situation that’s crucial for what I’m getting at... It was about some domestic violence where the father—and I’ll be blunt here—was a straight-up monster, abusing his kids for years, extremely brutal and loud about it. When we asked the neighbors if they knew anything and why they didn't report it, their response was basically that they shouldn't meddle in other people's business and it wasn't their problem, even though they'd admit it was horrific.
One thing specifically bugs me, and honestly, worries me too—looking at how many people on this forum, even in "lighter" situations, run away from stepping up because of this exact excuse, or just out of fear and worry about the fallout from their actions...

The point is—ramping up traits like apathy, indifference, egoism, selfishness, alienation, and asocial behavior, while letting empathy, altruism, responsibility, compassion, and other pro-social behaviors slide, puts us in a spot where we aren't just dropping below the level of functioning animals, but we eventually start viewing every other human being as a threat.

So, my summary is that constant education in these areas is vital—even through sending messages like this, reminding us that we need to stay active in everything happening around us and with the people we can reach. Even though evil exists and always will, we still have the chance to protect ourselves from it, regardless of how it keeps finding its way back.

It's exactly what I was talking about—I don't feel that much fear about being surrounded by those kinds of people, but what really worries me is what happens if it *does* occur and nobody around me reacts or feels the need to jump in and help?

btw, Hazen, great topic... 👍

It's a shame that, for some reason, things aren't more active on this forum lately...

🙂

🙄 Regarding those quoted above... I am honestly just waiting for someone to start rationalizing murder; I wouldn't even be surprised if that happened. I mean... facts.. what does an opinion matter when someone is actually stabbing you with a knife?! Would anyone even bother discussing this while sharing their experience watching a performance? Ask yourselves; you don't need to answer me.

Keep-Calm
Having recently become a mother, I find myself occasionally reflecting on the fundamental nature of humanity—specifically how it appears at its inception. From my perspective, I see nothing but good. There is this innate craving for attention, love, and patience. What might superficially be perceived as "malice" actually seems to stem merely from a misunderstanding of one's surroundings and a simple desire to have one's needs met.

🙏 I truly wish you abundant health and happiness, and perhaps even more children if life allows; I say this from the bottom of my heart 😍. Regardless of the environment we inhabit, people like you make life significantly more beautiful and worth living—and perhaps, in my estimation, even worth dying for! 👍

P.S. I suspect that if an individual in that specific performance had begun acting toward the audience in such a way, they would have been instantly branded a lunatic or a maniac. I doubt there would have been nearly as much "debate" or controversy regarding beliefs about human nature. However, when the issue shifts toward COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY 😠, that incredible protective instinct
kicks in.
P.P.S. I am honestly unsure if Hitler ever killed anyone personally, yet all the blame is placed solely upon his shoulders as the ultimate embodiment of evil, whereas Stalin arguably slaughtered more of his own people than Hitler did others... not to mention the history of the United States, stretching from the past right up to the present day! ☕ ... the tally doesn't stop, and it shows no intention of slowing down.

.. I suppose this is an endless topic of discussion 🕺