ATCF: The Mob's Shadow

Vance Crowe [00:00:02] As the crow flies on the Vance Crow podcast, Welcome back to the podcast. I'm glad you're here. This is a special edition of As the Crow Flies. I know I haven't done one of these in a few months, but that's because I've been really busy traveling all over the United States and even up into Canada doing some consulting work and a lot of speaking in front of crowds of people that are that number in the hundreds, sometimes even in the thousands. And so clearly a lot of those things are postponed or canceled right now, which means I have a little bit more time on my hands, and I thought I would use that time as constructively as possible. And one of my favorite things to do is to sit down and try and distill an idea that's worthwhile sharing with you. Now, most of the time, these as the crow flies are helping you think through a communications technique or strategy or way of thinking that can help you be a better communicator. But today, because of the crisis that we are experiencing all over the world, I thought of a story that I think is worth sharing. It was an experience that I had while I was a Peace Corps volunteer. And it's only just now as an adult in my late thirties that it's really coming into focus just how important it was that I see and experience this thing because I think it has real and serious implications for today, for right now.

Vance Crowe [00:01:35] Now, the story I'm about to tell is a little bit graphic. And so if you have small children or you are particularly sensitive, I feel like it's probably worthwhile to let you know that this is a story that has not a happy ending. And that's not to say that this isn't a worthwhile thing or that you should turn it off because you won't be happy at the end of it. It's just to say that this story is dealing with real life and the real life of things that happen when a mob forms. So when I was in the Peace Corps, the first 10 weeks that you spend in Africa are spent living with a family from the village that you're doing your training in. So each volunteer lives with a family and they get to learn the language, and they get to learn how to do all of the things that somebody living in the western world has no idea how to do in the pre-industrial world. Like how to use an outhouse that is effectively just a hole in the ground, or how to bathe yourself with a bucket or how to cook where you only, the only water you have is out of a well, and that you have to light charcoal on fire for every single meal and no refrigeration. So you're put into these situations and the family that's there to care for you, you bond with them because you are almost as helpless as a small child. You don't really understand the language. You don't have any concept of what's going on with the culture. And so many of the things that you take for granted in the regular world are taken away from you.

Vance Crowe [00:03:06] So you have to depend on somebody else, and you have to learn very quickly. And so I developed, along with I think every other volunteer that was there, a really strong bond with my home stay family. My father was somebody I, I looked up to Baba Wede, and he, it was just a family that I really connected with and I respected a great deal. And so as the things were going on in society, they were always taking me to participate. I can remember at one time after church on a Sunday, we went to what was effectively a movie rental studio where we picked up the born identity, and they wanted me to watch that with them because that was their impression of what went on in the United States. And I remember watching that movie in the evening with a black and white TV and DVD player that were hooked up to a car battery that one of the kids had taken earlier in the day to a generator where it had been charged up so that that way the family could have this, this movie night. And so we're very close and we spent a lot of time together. And as we saw things going on in the community, my home stay father, my baba, he would talk with me about what was going on in the community. And after we'd been there for maybe four or five weeks, I think a little over a month, there had started to be rumors that some people in the local shops that were generally manned by young boys were being robbed at night.

Vance Crowe [00:04:38] And I, it was a really weird situation because there would be claims that somebody, a stranger from out of town came in and they stole money and they beat up these kids that were running these shops. But I never saw the kids that were beaten up, and nobody actually would ever tell me the names of which one or which store was stolen from. And I'm not saying it didn't happen, I'm just saying that my experience was, I hear that people are upset about the fact that these shops are being robbed, and they're starting to get really worried and afraid because it didn't just happen once. It happened several times over a couple of weeks that the village didn't really have a plan for how they were going to handle this, because you can't just call up the police. There are no police patrol cars that go out to Tui Kenya. And even if there were, they aren't gonna do a stakeout. That's just not how the police operate in a pre-industrial African society. And so the community decided that what they were going to do was to pool together a little bit of resources of each one of the families around there, and I think of the shops. And they would pay the young unemployed youth that were somewhere between 15 to 25 to stay up at night and patrol around the neighborhood. And the neighborhood is not constructed like a US suburb. This would be houses that are maybe a couple hundred yards apart, sometimes maybe half a mile apart.

Vance Crowe [00:06:10] And in between them are valleys and little creeks and gardens that everybody grows, but there's no streetlights or anything like that. So you're in this very dusty, dark place, and at night there's nobody around. It's just shadows and darkness. And if the moon's not out, or even if it is out, that's all you have to light the way. And so you have these boys that are for the first time, given a responsibility, and that responsibility is to keep the town safe. And they, I think, took a lot of pride in this. A lot of them didn't normally get paid for work that they were doing. Oftentimes they were working for the family. And so it was just their contribution. And so they were very proud that they were among the ones selected to patrol. And I think what happened was every night they would get together, they would get into clusters, and they would wa they would actually walk the various paths and roads trying to be on the lookout for something that was lurking in the shadows, somebody that was gonna pop out and either attack them or attack those stores that they were trying to protect. So this went on for a week or two, and you could tell that this was now becoming a part of the community, but you also started hearing more and more rumors about who they thought the robbers were, because as soon as these little vigilante mobs started, and that's what they called them, they, they literally called themselves vigilantes. And the the groups would go around at night and in the shadows because there's nothing there, and you have nothing but time and you want to keep yourself occupied.

Vance Crowe [00:07:49] I think they started talking about, well, if the robbers aren't here, where are they? Where did they come from? Where did they go? And over time, people started to create a narrative that it was from some two strangers, Jenny's that lived in a town, not very many, not not very far away, maybe two or three miles. I don't actually know where they thought they were from. So the, they would talk about how there were two guys that were in jail and they were let out from jail, and they were living in this house and they had done their robbing, and now they were sitting and in, in this house and, and being wealthy. And, and that was pretty much as far as the stories went, but you would hear different versions of this over and over and over again. And eventually it became, that's just what everyone knew of who the criminal was. Actually, the two criminals were, and I didn't really think very much about this. You could tell there was energy every single morning of the, the boys when they would come home from their work as being a vigilante. It was right about the time that I was waking up. And so there would be this energy and this excitement, people talking. And then one morning when I woke up, I woke up to jubilant cheers. And it was surprising to me, I think it was like a Saturday or a Sunday morning and, and people were just absolutely so excited. And the children that lived in my home stay family were running out the door and you could hear kids and, and people in other parts of the town banging on pots and pans, and they were so excited.

Vance Crowe [00:09:22] And so I, you know, threw on my clothes and, and put on some shoes and went headed straight out the back door. And just as I was about to get out to the back door to head down to the trail to see where all these people were cheering, my, my baba stopped me. And he said, no, you are, you are not going. This is not for you. And you know, I respected him. I really liked him. So I don't think I was like bitter or upset at him, but I definitely had that tinge of, who are you to tell me that I can't go out there. I'm in my twenties, I've lived all over the world. I'm, I can go do what I want. But I backed that off and I said, if he doesn't want me to go, I'm just not gonna go. But I didn't really know very much about what was happening. And I'm kind of asking, and my family is kind of keeping it quiet for me, and they're trying to get me to be distracted when it's clear that you can't be distracted, it's not very often that all of these cheers come out from the countryside and they just keep going and going. And it's, it's really loud. And, and so eventually some of the boys come to the house and what I hear is the story that they caught the robbers and that, that, that the problem was taken care of and we no longer needed to worry about it. And the boys were super excited and e everybody involved felt like they had done a good thing. And then a couple hours later, my friend Rob, who is actually a different friend than the Rob I normally reference, but this is my friend from the Peace Corps, Rob, he lived maybe a half a mile from my house.

Vance Crowe [00:10:59] He came to the front door of my house and knocked. And as soon as I saw him, I was pretty excited because I was like, Hey, I heard they caught the robbers. And, but as soon as I take a look at his face, I see it is completely white. And he has obviously been crying and is very distraught. Now, this guy Rob, is hardcore, this would not be normal. So I am thinking he has just received news that somebody in his family has died or something tragic has happened to him, and he can't even really get words out. And eventually he kind of mutters and wants to know, did I go up to where the row of shops are? And I'm, I'm like, no, they didn't let me go. And why is everything okay? And he said, do you know what they did? And I was like, no, what did I, they caught the robbers. I don't, I don't really really know what that means. But you know, they caught the robbers. People were pretty happy about that. And he said, no, yes, they did catch the robbers, but who knows if those are the robbers? What they did was they went and found the two men that were in that town to over, that everybody knew who those people were. They went to their house and they stood outside as a giant mob, probably of like 50 or 60 people. And they demanded that the house send those two people that had been in jail out to the crowd. And the family living inside that house didn't have a choice. I mean, they were under a great deal of duress or threat.

Vance Crowe [00:12:31] I think They either thought it was gonna be burned down or they were gonna kick down the door, whatever it was. But these people demanded that those robbers be sent out. And they were, and then this vigilante mob of 50 or 60 young men brought these people back to the street where the, where the row of little shops are, and they put tires over top of them, and then they poured kerosene on them and they lit them on fire. And Rob said, my family wanted me to see this. And so only a few moments after the people had been burned to death, I was brought up to look at the bodies that were now wrapped in burning tires. And I, I didn't know what to say, you know, I turned and I looked at my homestay family who clearly knew what had happened. I don't think they were participants in it at all, but they clearly understood what had just happened. And I started wondering like, are you people crazy? Where am I? Who would operate in this way? Why would you take justice into your own hands like that? And I, I, I, I just couldn't believe it. And, and so I, the, the, the story doesn't have like a clean and happy and interesting ending. Ultimately, I had to come to the conclusion that these people felt afraid and they felt so afraid that they allowed their imagination and their joint conversations and their desire for there to be a clean and clear reason why they had been attacked and what they could do to stop the attacks from happening, that they took action.

Vance Crowe [00:14:24] And I knew many of the boys that were a part of that vigilante group, they were not bad or evil or any different than I was as an 18-year-old kid, but something was triggered in their brain that gave them the permission to feel righteous. That they knew and understood that the people living in that house were bad and evil and the bringers of the things that everyone was afraid of. And so that made them feel justified, giving their own individual sanity, their own individual responsibility, their own individual way of looking at the world. And they gave it over to the crowd because they wanted that fear to end. And now at 38 years old, watching the coronavirus spread around and seeing how people are reacting, actually feeling how I am reacting to something that is unknown, to something that is dangerous and, and seems like it's in the shadows. And it could come at any time, but it may not come tonight. I understand that poll. But at the same time as I understand that poll towards wanting to blame somebody towards wanting to have an answer, I have come to the conclusion that nothing good comes from an angry mob. And I think of this as I am watching people on social media talk about which individuals are responsible for bringing the disease to this town.

Vance Crowe [00:16:00] Who was it that broke the rules? Who was it that was so blythe that they should have done something else? And imagining that you in your own situation, if you had been in that same position as the person that brought the disease, that you would've behaved differently. And because you know for certain what happened and that you know for certain that you would've behaved better than them, you can condemn them. And that condemnation starts getting and building and increasing in its velocity and its intensity as people become more and more certain that the fact that they have heard the story told over and over and over again about who brought the disease and how it happened means that it is more and more true despite the fact that they are no closer to the truth than they were when they very first heard about the situation. I see that, and I get worried. I get worried because once the mob has taken hold, there is no stopping it. No individual, no amount of rationality, no amount of trying to slow people down and trying to stop them can stop the wave once it is built up. And so, while I'm sure that you are a perfectly rational person, you're a person that wants to make the right decisions, I just wanna call out that all of us are capable of joining a mob. All of us are capable of being afraid, and then hearing a story and imagining that we know that it's true and imagining that we know all of the details and all of the circumstances and that to not take action in this exact moment along with everyone else somehow feels like we're making a moral mistake.

Vance Crowe [00:17:45] But it's not true. And I hope that as you are watching social media and you're seeing the fear build, and you're watching people react in whatever ways they're going to react, and it could get very weird here in the next few weeks, is that you try and say, what is it that I am going to do to make sure that I am keeping my individual rationality and I am not participating in a mob? Because while it feels great in the moment that you were a part of the mob, and even after the fact, I think you might feel like I am justified because look at all of the people that were around me. We all know that we will be far better off if we use our individual rationality and our individual understanding that people make mistakes and that we don't understand the whole circumstance and that we are the only thing that can keep the mob from forming is to not join ourselves. And is to prompt people to think about things a little bit differently without spiking them to anger. I know that I personally tried to step in on a group of people that were pretty upset about how the disease had spread into St. Louis and I received a lot of pushback, some of it fair, some of it, them saying, Hey, we want there to be public shame so that people don't go out and infect other people. But other comments being really unfair, people calling that certain groups of people should be left to die. When I see that it frightens me. And I don't have any way to deal with that fear other than to get as prepared as I can for whatever comes, whether it's coronavirus or some other unknown thing that happens out there, and to be as patient as I possibly can with everyone that I encounter.

Vance Crowe [00:19:31] Because all of us are being impacted by this disease. And all of us know what it is to feel afraid and to want to have answers and clarity and finality. We will look and search and trade our own individual rationality for that catharsis. And it is the one thing that that will connect us to our animal nature. And that animal nature in this circumstance is something we want to avoid because in many cases, the mob could be far, far worse than what this disease can do. So I know that that is a heavy concept and I know that this is not a light and fun or easy thing for you to be able to apply to your life, but I wanted to put it out there because it's so easy to get caught up in these things. And maybe you and I having a conversation will keep you from joining into the, to the choir of people that are angry. Or maybe it will help you figure out a way to explain to somebody else that you see being swept up into the mob why they shouldn't be. So I'm gonna leave that there. I don't have any information that you don't have about how the disease spreads or what you can do to protect yourself. I just would ask that you think about being patient, you think about taking the right steps, and you just take care of yourself and the people around you and know that everyone around you is scared and that they're dealing with something. And the more that you understand where they're coming from, the more you're gonna give yourself a way to understand what's going on in your mind.

Vance Crowe [00:21:06] And that's, you know, maybe the point of life. So I hope you guys are doing great. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. I hope you stay safe and we'll be back on Wednesday with another interview. This one with a man named Stephen Fairbanks, who is a teacher at a high school that is fashioned after the Montessori Way. So this is a very interesting conversation, actually got me thinking about how I want to make sure my children are educated and I, and he gave me some new things to think about. So it's a fun interview. Stay safe and we'll talk to you later. Ah.