Blog post #2: Observing Crowd Behavior

This past weekend I had the opportunity to observe some of my competition while running in my first cross country race as an Argo. After my race, I was able to analyze my performance as well as the performance of my running peers. Winning a race takes much more than talent at the collegiate level. As we started the race I noticed that the "crowd" of runners were running a lot slower than I expected. This was a tactical race. Nobody wanted to take the lead or push the pace early on in the race in attempt to preserve as much energy as possible for the end of the race. I was able to correlate this behavior to Le Bon's interpretation of crowd behavior in a number of ways. From my understanding, Le Bon suggested that crowds are easily persuaded and conform to things that make them comfortable. Considering the slow pace in the race early on, I can conclude that all runners had the same idea in mind; to save energy. As the race progressed, so did the pace. After about the second mile of the four mile race, suddenly the "crowd" began to run faster and we all had to conform with the idea of gong with the pack at the risk of getting left behind.

"In his Politics, Aristotle believed man was a "political animal" because he is a social creature with the power of speech and moral reasoning: Hence it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal." 

- Libertyfund.org

From reading the remainder of the article on Libertyfund.org I was able to understand Aristotle's ideas on humans as political animals. He suggested that every person is naturally a political animal because we all have the ability to create our own ideas and choose a political party. However, on the other hand he suggest that people who turn their backs on politics also tun their backs on society. Living as citizens without a "tribe", and without a heart.