From The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
"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 on to 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; that's what an army is -- a mob; they don't
fight with courage that's born in them, but with cour-
age that's borrowed from their mass, and from their
officers. But a mob without any MAN at the head of
it is BENEATH pitifulness."
-Mark Twain
I'm writing this diary, with this particular header, not for the purpose of inflaming an already-hair-on-fire Far Right contingency, but instead in an attempt to reconcile how I feel about what we have all been bearing witness to for a very long time.
It was really the videos of Palin/McCain supporters that have been posted at Daily Kos and elsewhere that convinced me that this election has the underpinnings of mob mentality. Strident, righteous "believers" congregating en mass, unafraid to announce that they are there to rally against that terrorist, that socialist, the Muslim that threatens their community and way of life.
It's been brewing for 2 whole years now, and centuries before that. But it had been forced underground for decades, flaring up in specific localities for sure, and co-opted as a result of the confusion of 9/11. But blatant racism and a communal fear of "other" hadn't been engendered on a national basis since the 1960's, when racial strife was first and last televised, and nationally consuming.
It has now returned, obvious as it is unsettling to the majority of us. We can ignore the 24/7 race baiting broadcast on Fox News and right-wing radio, but their following and equally large ratings and funding are indisputable. The facts point to a large segment of our population that does not see itself as malicious or racist, or uninformed for that matter. They truly believe everything that is shouted to them from all of the half-a-men on radio and TV, because it is easy to do so, and because psychology suggests that believing it brings them comfort.
On a nightly basis, we hear these folks deny the overt racism, while evoking the spirit of the slanderous emails and mailers. I've seen them, in my inbox from who-knows-where, like old Klan flyers that were once printed from anonymous coffers. The impact of these messages is the same as if they were broadcast on national television, or on billboards across the country. The message is out, whether you take it or not, and is capitalized on daily. It recruits more numbers for the mob.
John McCain's not oblivious to this. He lived through it back in the day. This is one topic that Sarah Palin actually seems to be versed in, according to her rhetoric on the stump. She sounds like she wants to be the half-a-man that leads the mob. Wink.