While not all of us are familiar with the term mob mentality, none of us are foreign to the essential concept: monkey see, monkey do (more or less, anyway). Mob Mentality displays itself in many ways. Some benign, such as mass adherence to, and reverence of, pop culture; others being more serious – such as the Kitty Genovese story. Mob Mentality is not unlike the Orwellian ‘groupthink’ in the way that it refutes all possibility of thought-out decision making.   My issue with mob mentality resides not at its often gruesome result, but at its fundamental flaw: to subscribe to mob mentality is to unsubscribe to critical consciousness – which is essential for a ‘mob’ or group to function in a manner that is conducive to growth and mass progression. Many of us probably are not aware of what critical consciousness entails, as it is not typically in the majority vocabulary. Essentially, critical consciousness is both the theory and practice of utilizing skepticism, analyses, and syntheses to determine your own beliefs and behaviors. Critical consciousness requires us to separate ourselves from the identity bestowed upon us by conflict socialization and gouge from the well within ourselves the courage to dissent from the main.

It is of utmost urgency that we move from mob mentality into critical consciousness, given the state of society. For example, if you view all political and social issues through the eyes of a donkey or elephant, you are not engaging in critical consciousness, and therefore subscribing to mob mentality. If you identify as Democrat or Republican because of your parents (or in spite of your parents), you are not engaging in critical conscious, and therefore subscribing to mob mentality. If you use ‘ghetto’ as an adjective, you are not engaging in critical consciousness, and therefore subscribing to mob mentality. History also provides evidence of the ills of mob mentality and, conversely, the need of critical consciousness: The Second Red Scare, The Salem Witch Trials, The Holocaust, etc.

Shifting into critical consciousness is not difficult, but it requires immense diligence and discipline. How to do it? Question everything, read about it before you speak about it, admit when you’re wrong, and begin again.