‘Mass’ive Anonymity

                                                    

Few years ago two women were groped and assaulted on the New Year’s Eve by a large group of men, of which 14 were arrested. Last year a minor in Assam was assaulted by a group of around 30 men, outside a bar, while returning from a friend’s b’day party.  During Egyptian riots two years ago, many women journalists were sexually assaulted by large crowd of men, the most infamous of all being the rape of Lara Logan. In fact, this year’s Egyptian riots saw some 90-odd women being raped. 

“Five or six surrounded me, groped and prodded me, grabbed my genital area and I lost count of how many hands tried to get into my trousers. Yes, sexual assault. I’m so used to saying harassment but [they] assaulted me. “, were the words of a Mona  Eltahawy as she recounted her tale of horror from the 2011 Egyptian riots when she was arrested by ‘CSF pigs’, as she calls them,  and was left with a broken left hand and right arm.  

The incidents of a mob going wild are galore and there is perhaps no place in which the ugly side of humanity is so nakedly displayed than in a mob, the simple reason being ‘Anonymity’. In fact every wrong deed is committed only if the perpetrator is confident that his anonymity will remain intact, as supported by the popular trope “You are not a thief unless you get caught”. And in a group, individuals lose their identity. Whatever they do is influenced by what the majority of the group thinks. Whatever they do, they do as a group and the fear of being caught, as an individual for their misdemeanours, is gone.  Say for example, when in a class students misbehave, make noise or pass comments on teacher, they do it in a group in order to remain anonymous. As and when this anonymity is taken away, they seldom behave in a manner that is unacceptable to the present authority. The psychology for men is similar and when they find themselves in a group they become capable unthinkable things. Even the people expected to keep a lid on crimes don’t control themselves when faced with such situations. As can be seen in the case of Ms. Eltahawy, she was assaulted by the security forces responsible for keeping the crowd under control! By the way, of the 14 arrested for eve teasing on New Years’ Eve one had surrendered himself after seeing his photo in a tabloid. He regretted his behaviour and in his own words ‘didn’t expect it from himself’. 

It’s worrisome what men become capable of doing when in a group. According to psychologists, while in a group, the primeval animal instincts of men are heightened and their behavior isn’t in accordance with the acceptable social manners. If given opportunity they have behaved like animals and there’s no evidence to support any claim that this scenario would change, at least not anytime soon...