THE MOB SPIRIT | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 2, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 34.

THE MOB SPIRIT.

The real strength of manhood is not manifested in fierce, strong passion, but in self-control. He is the strong man that remains calm and thoughtful when others go wild with frenzy. Yielding to uncontrollable impulse is a sign of weakness. When Rome became weak and degenerate, the passions of her people ran highest in her gladiatorial contests. In the closing years of the Jewish nation the weak, degenerate, impulsive people one day honored Christ, hailed him as king, and strewed his way with their garments; the next, led by demagogs, they became a mad mob and cried, “Crucify him, crucify him.” Thus it was in France prior to the revolution and the “reign of Reason.”

It may be easily seen by the thoughtful student that America is living Rome’s life over again. The same excitable mob spirit is seen in the great gladiatorial contests—prize-fights—of to-day, and among what are considered the coolest, hardest-headed, most self-controlled men, in the stock rings, wheat pits, corn exchanges, etc., in our great cities. Here is the description of a scene in San Francisco, Friday, August 20, in the wheat speculation:—

The most ignorant and apathetic spectator felt the contagious thrill course the length of his back and set his hair on end. No one could stop to reason about motives or meanings in such a place. The atmosphere was surcharged with electricity that put the nerves on edge and set the pulses pounding like hammer blows. No man in that room could truthfully say that he was absolute master of himself. . . . . There is but one means of physical relief in such a moment—to shout with all the power of one’s lungs. . . . It was unreasoning craziness born of a calculated purpose. The inspiration was carefully considered, but the frenzy was uncontrollable. It knew neither origin nor bounds. It was senseless, absurd, ridiculous, from a business man’s viewpoint, but not a soul in the hall could boast that he had not felt the sensation of helpless self-surrender to the contagion of the hour. It was useless to attempt to fight it off. It communicated itself insidiously and suddenly, and in a flash the victim was carried out of and beyond himself. Such is the spirit of gambling. . . .

Young men committed open and unprovoked assault upon their elders in that wheat pit. They mashed each other’s hats, tore each other’s coats.

The strong pushed and pulled and bullied the weak in the struggle for the foremost place. It was no place for the timid or the coward. There was no money for him in that game. What was earned, was earned by unflinching nerve, backed by physical courage. Tall men overreached short men, and short men dodged under the arms of the tall men. What thin men lacked in momentum in the rush with their stouter brothers they supplied in their ability to scrooge through narrow places. But stout lungs were the weapon that wrought the greatest havoc and struck home with greatest sureness. The capacity to project one’s fractions hurtling through that hurly-burly was what secured deals and placed commissions of the operators.

Only sheer physical exhaustion could terminate such a scene. Brokers who went into that pit vigorous, sound of mind and limb and fearing nothing, emerged from the fray physical wrecks, trembling, weak with excitement, and worn in face and frame.”

—Examiner of August 21.

It is the “calculated purpose” of Satan and his agents to bring men to just such a condition as that. The arch-enemy desires to control them in that way, not only commercially, but religiously. And every yielding to his power increases the susceptibility. It has been said that this country will never persecute the honest, the humble, the conscientious, the God-fearing; but let a few magnetic leaders, inspired of Satan, in some popular, excitable assembly, lead out, and the crowds become mobs, enthusiasm becomes frenzy, and the shout of worship of yesterday becomes the cry of execration of to-day. If there is any man who ought to look at things calmly, it is the Christian. “Be sober” is an oft-repeated injunction. “Let your moderation be known unto all. The Lord is at hand.”