Mob mentality or individual thinker? Which are you? And which do you see more often in society? In the book Huck Finn by Mark Twain, we see both ways of thinking. There are often times when it is just easier to go along with the crowd and not have to worry about making the right decision. But you must try to think first before you develop that mob mentality. Just what are you trying to do and who is leading you? Do you know? At least as an individual you are able to choose for yourself what is right or wrong.
One of the places we see a mob mentality is at the camp revival meeting. The people get so caught up in the king’s tale, that they practically throw their money at him. Not only was it foolish of them to believe him, they most likely only gave up their cash because everyone else was and it seemed like a good thing to do at the time. Now, let’s see… Forking over money to someone that just jumped up on the podium with a crazy story about pirates… Does this seem logical to you? Probably not, but now you’re down two bucks because you went with the mob mentality.
Another episode of this type of thinking is when the lynch mob went for Colonel Sherburn after he had shot Boggs. They were all show of might but no bite. They were ready and rearin’ to go until Sherburn stood up to them and told them flat out, “You didn’t want to come. The average man don’t like trouble and danger. You don’t like trouble and danger. But if only half a man – like Buck Harkness, there – shouts ‘Lynch him! Lynch him!’ You’re afraid to back down – afraid you’ll be found out to be what you are – cowards – and so you raise a yell, and hang yourselves onto that half-a-man’s coat-tail, and come raging up here, swearing what big things you’re going to do. The pitifulest thing out is a mob… they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass…” This is a basic truth of the mob mentality, a half-wit idea is spoken, and the rest follow for fear of being called yellow.
Of course you may think that individual thinking got Sherburn into that mess in the first place, but you must also consider that it’s what got him out of it as well. An individual’s thought is often times much more complete than a mob’s. It is often more believable to someone who is logical, and is even more often rejected by a mob’s logic. A mob’s logic is mostly too confounded to have any sense to it at all, and floats on the whims of whispers and rumors.
Individual thought is frequently clear, defined, and accurate. Take Dr. Robinson, for example. In the midst of the whole city in which he lived believing the con of the king and the duke’s he had the frame of mind to see through their scheme and define what they really were. He saw they were only con men, and tried to tell the over-accepting and indulging mob that, but they wouldn’t have it. That mob just knew for sure that the king and the duke were who they said they were. But let’s think back… Now who were the ones that were deceived in the end? And who exactly was it that brought them to this realization? The good doctor, that’s who. His individual mind was totally accurate.
After seeing these examples, it can be logically concluded that Twain is saying that following the mob’s mentality is generally a very illogical idea, and one should have the presence of mind to be able to think on one’s own. It is with these ideas that one is able to conclude that a mob is nothing more than an over-enthusiastic, misguided, and forceful group of people who have no better sense to follow than someone else’s; and an individual’s mind is truly something that can be trusted to be unique, benign, and for the most part accurate.
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