It ends up appearing that all group violence is born from rational thought. Mass hysteria? Violence of the mob? What in blazes is that??? An evolutionary remnant?

Well, if the mechanism is one of past trauma and its emotional freight taking over, the rational process is obviously in abeyance, in the individual. So if you get someone or something stirring up a whole crowd of people, each with their own mechanisms causing the suspension of rationality, then the mutual interactions simply become one of accelerating, self-reinforcing irrationality stirring itself to greater heights momoent by moment. The "natural" thing is to find external solutiojns as to what to think, when your own power to do so is turned off. If the neazrest thing is a crowd going crazy, then, under durress, that's what you'll use.

Yes, I think the mechanism is an evolutionary remnant, useful in times of tooth and claw when the lizard brain and the adrenalin would kick in to fight for survival. Not much use these days, though..


Regards,


A