Have you been following the trials of those involved in the January 6 insurrection? While there were some individuals and groups that had planned on how to invade the Capital and stop Congress from its business the vast majority of those convicted explained to the judge that they weren’t thinking but just got caught up in the moment. This “mob mentality” is a constant in human society. We see it in the story of Susanna from the book of Daniel (“The assembly believed them since they were elders”) and in the incident of the woman caught in adultery in the Gospel of John. Group think can overwhelm reason when all you hear is from one perspective. The lesson in both these instances is to make sure that we are hearing other, dissenting voices, that we have all the information before acting, that we make a judgment with sound reason and not because “everyone is doing it.”
