Crowd

The term mob (English " mob" incited crowd, short for Latin MObilE vulgus, about " the fickle common people " ) refers pejoratively a mass of persons of ordinary people and an up zusammenrottende crowd with predominantly low educational and social level ( pejoratively also common people, mob, plebs, rabble, throng, crowd called ). In the English language this original designation Mob is also used for a band or for gang-related crime; in the U.S. for the mafia.

Definition

Mob refers to a more or less distinct group of persons acting together without any apparent leadership together. The own initiative, group dynamics acting mob has short-term goals (predation, feed to public executions and the like), its radical manifestation is the riot, the riot. Among children up like forms (without a " mob " to be called ) for example as cheering accumulation around a fight in the schoolyard.

The mob organized tumult and uproar, but he analyzed and not discussed. " The Revolutionism the mobs ' was primitive ," judged the Marxist social historian Eric Hobsbawm. The mob rose for a short time, made riot, zündelte and rioted, but soon lost energy and desire or was crushed by the state power - and it went into decline for a long time in passivity. The mob in the strict sense only disappeared with the advent of an industrial working class and its organization in socialist parties and trade unions.

For Karl Marx, the outrage of a mob as the action of the " lumpen proletariat " will be strictly distinguished from the rebellion of the " proletariat." In sociology, the action of the mob with the help of the distinction between the " quantity " discussed by the " mass ".

History

The mob in the narrow sense was a typical phenomenon in the pre-industrial cities, were among the day laborers, beggars, the poor and the socially excluded. These different groups came again and again spontaneously and abruptly together to militant protests. There was this but neither a fixed organization nor an ideological objective or even a political program.

A special form of mobs is the lynch mob, who - according to historical sources - most frequently occurred in the days of witch burnings in Europe and in the 19th and 20th centuries in the wild west and in the southern United States. In movies and books, it is often described as a mob that is armed with torches and pitchforks classic.

In the early modern period such mobs studied mainly supposed witches home and self - operated or lynching - or the lynch mob made ​​sure that these alleged witches were burned at the stake. In the Wild West lynch mob exist primarily to bring imprisoned criminals to the track before they could be brought for trial out of town.

The phenomenon of spontaneous formation of mobs can also be used for disguising the actual authors of purposeful, to be kept secret ( " clandestine " ) policy actions (such as lynching or associated with murders and massacres and devastation plundering of a ghetto ).

Organized crime

In the U.S., called " mob " especially organized crime, the U.S. La Cosa Nostra and other gangs. Members and people involved in it and cliques are called Mobster.

Flashmob

The term " flash bake ", but mostly English " flash mob " ( " flash" - Lightning, "mob " - mob ), "smart mobs " ( "smart crowd ", Latin for " mobilis " - moving) or " Smart bullying "refers to a short, seemingly spontaneous crowd on public or semi- public places, where the participants usually do not know personally. Flash mobs are organized via weblogs, newsgroups, e- mail chain letters or by mobile phone. Although the original idea was explicitly apolitical, there are flash mobs with political background. In contrast to the negatively connoted term " mob " the crowds of flash mobs predominantly of participants are formed with high educational and social level as well as philanthropy. The term " flash mob " should not be used in a negative declaration "Mob " is because the objectives are fundamentally different.

Football Mob

The term of the mob is also found in football, especially as terminology in fan circles, again. In jointly organized marches (see " mobilis " = moving), the amount often referred to as mob. The mob excited this attention by singing common songs and pyrotechnics are fired. The march itself is referred to, especially in Italy, as Corteo.