Mob Mentality

Mr. Fahad Ali Raza was invited as a guest speaker in one of my classes of ethics. He started his presentation using this phrase ‘Man is intelligent and People are Stupid’, which I am making use of, as the title of my blog (I have renamed the blog as Mob Mentality).

When a child is born, he is as good as any animal could be, because all the animals do two things: ‘eating and shitting’, and a kid until the age of 5, does the same thing.

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When a kid’s intellect (which differentiates him from animals) grows, his mind is bombarded with various beliefs, like his parent’s religion and ethnicity, and belonging to a country or area. In simple words, his mind is brainwashed to believe what his ‘elders’ think, is right for him.

For example, if he is born in America, he is American, if he is born in a Hindu family, he is a Hindu, if he is born in a French-speaking family, he is identified as French and similarly, if he is born in a particular Muslim sect, he is recognized as, member of that particular sect.

It means, now he is not, what he actually is i.e. a ‘human’, he is brainwashed into, what his family, environment, society, religion, ethnic background, or culture, defines him to be. All these variables emerge from his association with the country, language, religious beliefs, culture, and ethnic background. This association has an overwhelming impact on his emotional attachment with this ‘identity’. He loses sight of his own ‘self’ and becomes, what he is made, and not, what he actually is. In this stage, he is more categorized as, part of a herd of ‘PEOPLE’ and not mankind.

When he further develops his intellect, then he comes to realize, his true self and that true self is nothing but ‘humanity’.

In order to clarify my understanding of the concept given above, I would like to quote Hazrat Ali’s (KAW) saying, interpreted as: ‘Whosoever recognizes his Self, recognizes Almighty Allah’. For the sake of understanding this saying, I like you to look at our own body to understand the philosophy hidden behind.

The lower half of our body is meant for ‘eating and shitting’, which animals also do. It means that whosoever is only concerned and engaged in fulfilling the stomach, and getting rid of the extra burden, which he has accumulated into his stomach, by virtue of his greed, is at the lowest tier of his ‘creation’. At this stage, we can rightly be equated to animals by virtue of our own degradation to that level.

When we rise above the stomach, we have heart, which is the seat of emotions of love and hate, and it has the capacity to ‘feel’ and not to ‘think’. Our identity with religion, sect, ethnicity, and country compels us to have a relationship of ‘love’ with those who have the same religious or sectarian or linguistic or ethnic beliefs and we inadvertently (because we ‘think’ from ‘heart’ and ‘feel’ from ‘mind’) ‘hate’ those who do not belong to our beliefs, ethnicity, or country. In this stage, we behave a little better, then animals because we socialize. We are now called social animals, because of our social interaction and association with people. I call this stage, ‘PEOPLE’, a stage above animals.

When we further rise above the heart, we have ‘mind’ (if we have any, otherwise most people have ‘brain’) on top of our bodies. If we somehow, manage to make use of this seat of intellect, i.e. ‘mind’, we come to realize, ‘WE’ are not, what we think, we are beyond. This is the state when an individual becomes a ‘MAN’, a stage above, ‘people’.

We see whosoever is on top is usually running the affairs of a country or an organization or also Almighty Allah Himself is above, who is running the whole universe. That’s why Almighty Allah put the ‘mind’ on top of our body, because HE wanted us, to make it (mind) our ruler.

On the contrary, we have stopped using our ‘mind’ and made our ‘heart’ to rule us through emotions and feelings of love and hate. We are doing, what we are told to do, not by virtue of our own will, but by the thoughts of those, whom we have given, control of our life.

At the end of the day, it is we, who will be held responsible for our deeds, (as we have been gifted with ‘mind’) and not those, who are using us, for their nefarious designs, through their manipulative tactics and brainwashing our minds through emotional blackmail.

So ‘THINK’ through your mind and not by your heart, before you are ‘THOUGHT’ (emotionally blackmailed) by others. Make use of your mind to become an intelligent ‘MAN’ out of the herd of stupid ‘PEOPLE’. Rise above the level of ‘animals and people’ and become, what you actually are, and not, what you are being made, by ‘others’.

When we degrade ourselves from our level of human beings, we call ourselves ‘Social Animal’ and when we like to rise above the level of human beings, we call ourselves Angels. Whereas, the Holy Quran calls all human beings over and above ‘animals and angels’, we are the superior creation of Almighty Allah.

Among all living beings; neither animals, nor plants, are called, animal beings or plant beings, respectively, but humans are called ‘Human Beings’. We have to identify, what makes us BEING, as HUMANS.

Sajjad Hussain