In the recent Beams article exploring the Vancouver riots, a few of the writers spoke to the role of group psychology in the riots and how it's possible for things to turn ugly quickly in mass human gatherings. This past week I came across this TED talk on The Psychology of Evil by Stanford psychologist Phillip Zimbardo, where he explores this topic in-depth. Zimbardo knows intimately of what he speaks, as he was involved in the famous Stanford prison experiment in the early 1970s (which he speaks to in the talk). Zimbardo's talk is a great place to go deeper into this topic of inquiry.

I also randomly came across these two quotes from Carl Jung this past week, and thought they were also worth adding to the mix for further reflection on this topic.

"The change of character brought about by the uprush of collective forces is amazing. A gentle and reasonable being can be transformed into a maniac or a savage beast. One is always inclined to lay the blame on external circumstances, but nothing could explode in us if it had not been there. As a matter of fact, we are constantly living on the edge of a volcano, and there is, so far as we know, no way of protecting ourselves from a possible outburst that will destroy everybody within reach. It is certainly a good thing to preach reason and common sense, but what if you have a lunatic asylum for an audience or a crowd in a collective frenzy? There is not much difference between them because the madman and the mob are both moved by impersonal, overwhelming forces".

"Psychology and Religion" (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. p.25

"No, the demons are not banished; that is a difficult task that still lies ahead. Now that the angel of history has abandoned the Germans,* the demons will seek a new victim. And that won't be difficult. Every man who loses his shadow, every nation that falls into self-righteousness, is their prey.... We should not forget that exactly the same fatal tendency to collectivization is present in the victorious nations as in the Germans, that they can just as suddenly become a victim of the demonic powers.

"The Postwar Psychic Problems of the Germans" (1945) *Written I945.