Avoiding a Mob Mentality

There’s so much I appreciate about the 2004 mewithoutYou album Catch for Us the Foxes that, although it's an obscure pick, I rank that sophomore release from the now-defunct, crunchy, hipster, at-one-time-Christian, post-hardcore band as my all-time favorite album.

Known for its inventive instrumental choices, wildly abrasive shifts in tempo and tone, and tortured, introspective lyrics about faith, life, and what it means to be a Christian, Catch for Us the Foxes became an instant classic for teenage punks like me growing up in the mid-2000s.

A few of the lines from one of the verses in the second-to-last song, “Carousels,” still stick out to me. In his trademark spoken-word delivery, frontman Aaron Weiss talk-sings:

Oh, Christ, when you’re ready to come back

I think I’m ready for you to come back

But if you want to stay wherever exactly it is you are

That’s okay too—

It’s really none of my business

Those lines have stuck with me because, at least for me, they’ve always helped remind me that someday Jesus Christ is going to come back. Someday he will return. And far from that being an abstract or vague future possibility, that day could actually be quite soon. It could be this week. It could even be today.

But it also often leads me to a little thought experiment: If Christ were to come back soon, this week, even today, would I recognize him? Would I know him? And would I be able to see him for who he truly is—my Messiah, Savior, and Lord—or would I see him as something or someone else instead?

Recognizing Christ the First Time

I think about that sometimes at this time of year, too, around the events of Holy Week.

After all, many of the Jews, the people Jesus was originally sent to, including many of their most learned and serious religious leaders, didn’t recognize him. And they didn’t just not recognize him. Much to the contrary, they actively denied him, called for him to be arrested, and then, after he was taken into custody, repeatedly chanted, “Crucify him!”

Just like I sometimes wonder if I’ll be able to recognize Jesus when he comes back, I also wonder, if I had been there among the crowds and religious leaders that first Holy Week, would I have been able to recognize Jesus then? Would I have seen him and known him for who he was—my Messiah, Savior, and Lord? Or would I have been part of that Holy Week mob, joining my voice with the others who condemned Jesus, calling for him to be arrested, put on trial, and crucified?

After all, we like to think that that sort of “mob mentality” is a thing of the past, that it was something people back then engaged in, but that we, enlightened people today, would never do.

Yet the unfortunate truth is that that sort of mob mentality is still very much alive and well these days.

The Mob Mentality

We don’t always gather in rowdy in-person mobs to shout at our leaders the way the crowd did with Pilate that first Holy Week (though that certainly still happens from time to time). But the fact is that we still often engage in the sort of group-think outrage, anger, and piling on that the crowd of that first Holy Week did.

For instance, part of why I quit social media a number of years ago is because I noticed that sort of mob mentality at work online all too often. That kind of thing happens pretty much every day on the internet. Someone posts something, people read it, we take sides, and pretty soon there’s an avalanche of different perspectives, opinions, and hot takes as people ghost each other, write each other off, and cancel each other into oblivion. If Holy Week were to take place today, we might not gather physically in a mob on the street to demand Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, but we would certainly Tweet it, post it, and Like or Dislike it. #crucifyhim!

Where Mob Mentality Comes From

In their bestselling 2018 book The Coddling of the American Mind, co-authors Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt explore some of the reasons we seem predisposed to that sort of “mob mentality.” In the main part of the book they write about what they call “The Three Great Untruths,” which they believe our culture has more or less uncritically adopted and which they say (and I agree with them) are deeply malforming us as a culture and society.

1. First, Lukianoff and Haidt write about what they call “The Great Untruth of Fragility,” which is the idea that hard or challenging things are bad, and as a result, we should do everything in our power to avoid them.
2. Second, they write about “The Great Untruth of Emotional Reasoning,” which is the idea that our feelings are always right and so we should always trust them and follow wherever they lead.
3. And, finally, they describe “The Great Untruth of Us Versus Them,” which is the idea that life is a battle between good and bad people and, while we’re on the good side (and so are those who agree with us), those we disagree with are on the bad side. Therefore we need to fight them and defeat them so that our side, the good side, wins.

These patterns come to us so easily because, as the Bible teaches, our hearts are already bent toward pride, self-justification, and seeing others as enemies. Yet it's clear that aside from the fact that those “Three Great Untruths” contradict the vast majority of philosophical, moral, and religious ethical wisdom (including Christian ethical wisdom), they’re also practically bad ideas.

For instance, let’s imagine a college student at a four-year university somewhere in the United States. One day the student hears that a popular thinker and influencer has been invited to his campus to give a lecture. The student, however, disagrees with some of the things this speaker has said in the past. Not only that, he’s offended by them! Outraged, he tells a few friends and, together, they organize a demonstration to protest the speaker’s invitation. The school administration hears about their efforts and tries to reach out to them. But they make clear, in no uncertain terms, that the only thing that will pacify them is if the speaker’s invitation is canceled. Nothing less will do. Either the college can support its students or it can support this speaker, but it can’t do both.

That, Lukianoff and Haidt write, is what it looks like when these “Three Great Untruths” combine and are put into action. That’s because the Great Untruth of Fragility means that no one should ever have to experience or hear anything one dislikes or disagrees with. The Great Untruth of Emotional Reasoning means that our emotions and how we feel about something are always right (like the student’s feeling of outrage that the speaker is coming to his campus). And then the Great Untruth of Us Versus Them means that, as you trust your feelings, you should do everything in your power to fight those who are making you feel that way (like protesting the speaker’s invitation and trying to get that person canceled).

You don’t have to imagine that sort of scenario. Lukianoff and Haidt actually chronicle dozens of situations, all across the United States, where college and university students have increasingly done exactly that. Where they’ve become outraged by speakers who have been invited to their campuses, organized demonstrations and protests against them, and sometimes even resorted to violence as they’ve tried to physically block and bar those speakers from coming.

It’s not just college campuses either. The simple fact is that those sorts of “mob mentality” outbursts have been playing out more frequently in our culture as a whole. Put simply, we’ve all become more inclined to believe the “Three Great Untruths” Lukianoff and Haidt describe. And, as a result, we’ve become more inclined to exhibit the sort of mob mentality they lead to.

How To Avoid a Mob Mentality

What do we do? How do we respond? How do we make sure that we, as Christians, rather than getting sucked into mob mentality, are more careful, even-handed, thoughtful, and considerate?

Well, if Lukianoff and Haidt are right that the “Three Great Untruths” of Fragility, Emotional Reasoning, and Us Versus Them are at least partially to blame for our current cultural predisposition toward “mobbing” each other, then part of the solution is to turn and do the opposite.

For instance, if fragility and being easily offended is a problem, we should train ourselves to become less offendable. Lukianoff and Haidt recommend intentionally getting our news and information from sources we disagree with. While it’s initially challenging to read and hear things we don’t like, over time it helps us become more nuanced and thoughtful; develop thicker skin; and, as Lukianoff and Haidt put it, become “antifragile.”

Second, if emotional reasoning and following our feelings is a problem because it makes us emotionally reactive and prone to knee-jerk reactions, we should give ourselves more time and space to think through how we want to respond to something that offends us. For instance, a few years ago I adopted a rule I find helpful and I know I’m not the only one to adopt it. Often known as “The 24-Hour Rule,” it advises you to wait 24 hours before responding to something that frustrates you. That’s because 24 hours is usually enough time to calm down, think more clearly about what we’re frustrated about, and then (and only then) take time to respond.

Finally, if the idea of us versus them and the idea that the world is divided into two types of people—good ones who agree with us and bad ones who don’t—is making us more divided, critical, and willing to “mob” each other, then we need to actually get to know each other, spend time with those we disagree with, and truly listen to what they think and believe. Doing so won’t change our minds, and it probably won’t change their minds either. But that’s not the point. Instead, the point is to learn to see those we disagree with as real people made in the image of God and deserving of the same inherent dignity, value, and respect that we believe we deserve because we were both made by the same Creator God.

More specifically, as Christians, we can also pray for those we disagree with, which Jesus himself tells us to do in Matthew 5:44. After all, praying for those we dislike or disagree with might not make us disagree with them less, but it does have a way of making us dislike them less because, as a friend of mine once put it, “It’s hard to keep disliking those you’re talking about to God.”

As Christians, we can also remember the grace and forgiveness we ourselves have received. When we remember the grace and forgiveness God has given us in Christ, it has a way of motivating us to extend that same grace and forgiveness to others as well.

I’m sure there’s more we can do, but those are good places to start. Can you imagine being swept up into the mob mentality that called for and pressured the Romans to crucify Jesus? And that often leads us to “crucify” others today? To work to avoid that, we can develop thicker skin and become “antifragile” by seeking out viewpoints and perspectives different from our own. We can give ourselves a bit more time and space to think through how we want to respond to difficult situations. We can get to know people who are different from us and spend time with them. We can pray for people and learn to intercede on their behalf to God. And we can remember the forgiveness and grace that we’ve been given and graciously extend it to others as well.

Doing so certainly won’t solve all our problems. But hopefully, as Christians, it’ll help us avoid ghosting, canceling, and mobbing each other the way our broader culture does. And, as an added bonus, whenever Christ comes back, rather than finding ourselves in the mob calling out to condemn and crucify him, it’ll help us instead be people who recognize him for who he truly is: Our #Savior. #Messiah. #Lord.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. The article points to the mob crying out for Jesus’ crucifixion and shows that we are no different. Why is it so easy to follow the crowd, even against Jesus? Can you think of a time when peer pressure made following Jesus hard?
2. How does social media tempt you to judge, attack, and “pile on” others? How can you do the opposite?
3. How does knowing your sin and Jesus’ grace change “us vs. them” thinking?
4. The author ends by proclaiming Jesus as Savior, Messiah, and Lord. How can looking upon Jesus in gratitude and looking forward to his coming in trust, change our hearts away from the crowd?