This came up in the Covid thread and I thought it to be an interesting topic to discuss on its own. I put the phrase into DuckDuckGo (my search engine of choice) and Google just to see what would come up and got very different results. The following article came up and I randomly clicked on it specifically because it wasn't a news outlet. I wanted to know what an article free from news media bias would say. It was interesting. It was written on 28 December 2021, so before the Joe Rogan interview with the doctor went viral and has been taken down on youtube. The author begins with interesting insight from South Africa and it goes from there. My comments are in red.

Link

Opinion: How have we gotten here? Mass Formation Psychosis, explained

Clark County Today Administrator Heidi Wetzler shares clinical psychology professor Mattias Desmet’s theory about the societal conditions under which a population ends up willingly sacrificing their freedom

I received the following comment recently from a reader in Africa, on a column I wrote a while back regarding natural immunity. It captures the essence of my daily inner dialogue. 

“Arguments from privileged countries. We in Africa have little access to vaccines, boosters, etc. The question we should be asking is, how is Africa managing? You people have already caused mayhem over Omicron. Our good doctors from South Africa have told us not to panic, but the rest of the world is in the highest panic mode yet … your countries’ have over 70% vaccinated, boosted etc. You should be at peace … you will die of fear.”



As I sat with these ideas, coming from half a world away, I realized the privileged countries in the world are living a far different reality than the less privileged. Ironically, in America, we have limitless access to vaccines, and some of the most educated doctors and scientists in the world, yet the majority of our citizens are consumed with fear. But does the level of fear and now the level of governmental control really match the current threat of the virus and its variants? Why aren’t we jumping for joy that so far Omicron is looking to be more transmissible, but far less deadly? In theory, this variant could signal the end of the pandemic. Shouldn’t it be good news that many more people will likely develop a level of natural immunity from a less dangerous variant as we work toward the promised land of herd immunity? But this commenter is right … instead of optimism, what we have instead are increased calls for panic, lockdowns, passports, mandates and more. Why, you ask? Let me suggest a theory.

Seriously. I have asked myself many of the same questions. Why is omicron being heralded as the next worst variant when it's been stated over and over by the SA doctor who discovered it that it's not any worse than a bad cold? Why aren't people happy it's less lethal than delta? Etc., etc., etc. 

Recently, I ran across the concept of mass formation, explained by Mattias Desmet, professor of clinical psychology at Ghent University in Belgium. He explains the societal conditions under which a population ends up willingly sacrificing their freedom. 

There are four basic conditions which need to be met in order for a society to be vulnerable to mass hypnosis.
-a lack of societal bonding
-when the majority of people view their lives as being without purpose or meaning
-free floating anxiety
-high levels of frustration and aggression, with no discernible cause

She cites the reasons for the above conditions and it's not a stretch to say we have seen all of this happening. She goes on to express her thoughts on the subject and I found it to be interesting. I've never heard of mass formation except in the context of my time in the Army and we would all get into a mass formation for morning PT. It seems to be what allowed Hitler and the Nazis to do their thing and turn the German people against their countrymen/women because they were Jewish, homosexual, gypsies or some other "undesirable" label. 

To say this isn't happening in this country is to be willfully ignorant or just plain stupid. She ends the piece saying this.....

At the end of the day, the global fight against COVID has brought an unbreakable bond between the members of a vulnerable group. Mass formation erases individuality. The virtuous fighters have now focused their virtuous fear and hatred on a group that is not under the spell. The unvaccinated are now the subject of intense disdain. The governor of Washington state recently called them domestic terrorists. And the masses likely agree.  Even though many unvaccinated are COVID recovered, have natural immunity and are completely safe to be around. No questions are being asked. All critical thinking is done for. 

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