How the Mob Rules
By: Alexander Kreitz
STATE COLLEGE, PA – The Founding Fathers’ greatest fear in governance was the governed themselves. They are both the heartbeat and the heartbreaker. The populace, when given a strong Republic, is a servant that compares to none. Yet when that Republic is forgone, and the populace swarms and becomes a collective, a fate unimaginable descends upon the face of the Earth: the rule of the Mob.
That is what you see before you, this horrendous poster. The poster, found last week on Penn State’s University Park campus and proudly displayed on a student’s story, called for the lynching of all ICE agents. It is the mark of the Mob, claiming, “Any who oppose us will be strung up with rope and hung until dead.”
There is a definite line between a strong Republic and the Mob’s yoke. But before an explanation is given, it is best to define what either party is.
The Republic is an organized coalition of the common man. That includes you, me, and everyone else. Given voice by the ballot to decide our nation’s fate, the perfect body of rule. Where we need not be lawyers or generals but ourselves, letting the compass of good guide our decisions to elect those with greater knowledge who, when chosen in good faith, guide our nation as we desire.
Whilst the Republic is virtuous, the Mob rule is anarchy embodied. There is no collective law, only the instantaneous will—a will of a people inflamed by passion. Yet passion is a fickle thing and easily lost. And when the hole of passion digs in the heart, our souls seek another vice to burrow into. Thus, a law from yesterday can be scrapped and rewritten as a law today, and again for tomorrow. There is no certainty under the Mob, only fear. Fear that you may gain their ire and be strung up for it.
Now that the line between the Republic and Mob rule is clear, how does this relate to the mortal threat against law enforcement? Well, if the objective of the Republic is to lay a common, enforceable law upon its upholders, then it is in mighty opposition to the Mob. Whereas the Mob desires complete control, so must it attack the institution and take its place.
And the Mob is no singular person, no rational collective of individual minds. Nay, it is a single soul, the closest man has come to a hive-mind organism. A creature vile, uncaring of its singular appendages, only of its beating heart.
Such is why the Mob does not care to put its people in danger. It burrows into the common man’s mind, convincing them to embrace danger and death all to further the Mob’s agenda.
This is why the deaths of Renée Good and Alex Peretti are such tragedies. Both souls were members of society, yet inflamed by the Mob to leave their good lives and move upon law enforcement. A choice of their own, yet planted within them by the Mob. And as they moved upon law enforcement and interrupted operations, the tragedy ensued that cost them their lives.
They ought to be alive today, if not for the Mob. If not for that terrible collective that is fostered by higher politicians who oppose the current order. But the Mob does not care. Instead, it cheers, it valorizes these martyrs, and encourages its many appendages to meet the same fate.
“Go, find these men of the law,” it commands. “Find these men, who have wives and sons and daughters. Find them and string them up. Fill them with their bastard law, so that we may rule in their place.”
Because that is all the Mob cares for: the right to rule. Rule in place of law, power in place of order. And until it is achieved, it will stop at no expense. It will attack those who enforce the law and bid them hang.
Such is why the Founding Fathers feared the governed. They feared the governed would reject the notion of the Republic and instead embrace the Mob.
And with each day, I fear, their nightmares grow nearer.