On Riots and Other Violent Acts
The ongoing threat of riots, violence and the imposition of curfew in Bangalore raises an interesting question: What triggers such a drastic different-from-normal behavior in so many people, either at the same time or spread over time in a copycat manner? If you responded with the word “Politicians”, think again. After all, the risings in the Arab world a few years back, from Morocco to Libya; as well as the rising in the communist countries of eastern Europe (1989) were directed against politicians . Or think about the acts of Islamic terrorists who grew up in Europe, who seem to associate with groups far, far away. Previous answers to this question in the context of riots, as Malcolm Gladwell points out , usually considered two options: 1) “ A crowd cast a kind of intoxicating spell over its participants”. 2) Or “maybe at the moment a riot was beginning people changed their beliefs”. Stanford sociologist Mark Granovetter added another possible reason: “ A