[GordonJ]

Since last week I have been in deep study of...

MOBS. Crowds. Herds.

So much of the psychology of mob behavior, is over 100 years old. And there are theories galore.

Last week, what I've read mostly from the Psychology pundits, the Capitol Mob exhibited social identity theory as the main underlying "reason" for the behavior of the crowd.

Membership theory. They were the cult of Trump. KEY authority figures (leaders) were made on the spot. None of the speakers of the day were leading the herd.

It was the Animal House version of the drum major in front taking the band into a dead end alley, from the many reports, no one in the crowd thought any one person or group was "in charge" or leading. Only a few dozen of the thousands actually entered the building, many were bystanders.

Well, I'll let this week shake out, see what tomorrow brings, some say the police are waiting until after Wed. to issue arrest warrants, they fear some of the "leaders" would be pardoned by Trump. We'll know soon enough.

Now oddly, I was right in the middle of reviewing years and hundreds of pages of notes on Audience Influence (an audience is a well behaved mob?)...and persuasion and found notebooks from the 60 and 70's on cults, crowd behavior {one such notebook was when the Guru Maha Ji came to San Francisco and later Rennie Davis was pitching DLM Divine Light Mission in 73}

I've had a long interest in cults, and went to many events, and honestly...if I had been more of a student of say, a Leni Riefenstahl, who created the masterpiece of propaganda. TRIUMPH OF THE WILL...

I might have been more observant...because, and this should get me in trouble...

Between AMWAY rallies, DLM's Millennium 73 event, Stadiums full of Billy Graham followers during a 'crusade'...a Trump rally...or a Cleveland celebration of a Browns NFL Superbowl title (imagined)

It might be hard to discern the maddening of the crowds. The common thread is the feverish pitch obtained by the masses, like a Beatles concert in 1965.

Most of those were non violent, however, we do remember Chicago in 68, speaking of Rennie Davis and Altamont in 69. When huge numbers of people gather, some unpredictable things might happen.

Or are they unpredictable? Like I say, in the next few weeks we'll get a clearer picture of how much was known BEFORE the 6th about possible violence. Get the conspiracy machine revved up, there are lots of ways it can go.

But as I was researching SALES tecnique, and selling from the podium, and all things influence and so called words that sell (or incite), I've found this one thing.

Which bothers me. And that is I can't believe how much we believe about sales, copywriting, persuasion, influence which is based upon very little evidence and mostly small group studies from college professors using not much more than a classroom full of people, yet, extrapolating the behavior of the masses from their, in my opinion. biased experiments.

I have come to believe there is a mountain of evidence against the body of work done long ago and that much of what we teach and learn are false premises.

More later.

Gordon