The Coffee Crowd

    The crowd I observed was at my job. I work at Starbucks, a job that is a little more demanding than I initially though it would be two years ago but I digress. The crowd I observed may not be as terribly accurate representation of crowd behavior as the majority of the people at the store had not had their daily dose of caffeine for the day. As an avid coffee enthusiast I understand a what that's like. But being on the receiving end of cranky customers who did not plan to get their coffee with a little extra time to get to work is not a great experience either. The crowd in Starbucks tends to be very interesting in that if a person comes up to ask me if their drink is ready even if they ordered 5 min ago, the rest of the crowd tend to follow along and sooner rather than later I have a hoard of customers all asking if their drink is ready because they need to run to work. This effect on the crowd reminded me of Le Bon' s ideas on crowds that they all tend to accept an idea fairly easily even when they don't fully understand the complexity of it. It is also quite interesting when a customer reacts in a   bad way to having to wait (excessively) for their latte, there are always customers that are very empathetic and get very amped up about their fellow coffee drinkers beverage. The quote by Le Bon then came to mind about Le Bon's interpretation of the individual " he is no longer himself, but has become an automaton who has ceased to be guided by his will"(Gustave Le Bon).
 
  Crowds are easy to pursued and to rally together when you say the right things in the right way at the right time. When looking back on the people of Germany during World War II, the big question that comes up is why didn't they stop the Nazis and why did the German people elect a man like Hitler into power, and it comes back to hitler saying to right thing that he was going to restore the power and the name of Germany with such confidence and top public stacking skills at a time when the German people were struggling to recuperate after the repercussions of WWI.

   "Second, human beings are by nature political animals, because nature, which does nothing in vain, has equipped them with speech, which enables them to communicate moral concepts such as justice which are formative of the household and city-state" -Aristotle 
    
    From what I found I learned that Aristotle believed that there were two types of individuals: first the individual who is a political animal because he is endowed with the ability to speak and debate morals and ideas, or they are individuals, lone wolves who do not need a pack to belong to. they turn their back on society and have no interest in becoming part of a tribe. 

Looking Back, Looking Forward

In the article, Looking Back, Looking Forward: ISPP at 40 and Future Directions for Political Psychology author Katherine Reynolds, delves into a myriad of topics. When we looked at the article in class there were a few key points that stood out. First there are a total of four levels of politcal needs that were drawn from Maslow. Level one are the basic needs; level two is dogmatism, authoritarianism, aggressivness; level three values, roles, and beliefs; and level four political ideologies.         

Jeanne Knutson Model

• Level 1 Basic needs
• Level 2  dogmatism, authoritarianism, and aggressiveness
• Level 3 sociocultural learnings such as values, roles, and beliefs that define a cultural system and situational factors
• Level 4 political ideology and political activity 

These different levels and the way that they effect one another have been the main question for many politcal pyschologists. In class with our small groups we were able to dive deeper into the section, Common Theoretical Assumptions Surrounding Humans as Political Animals. “To be a political animal is to be engaged with the social affairs of the group which is more deliberate and active compared to current accounts of being a social or cultural animal.” (Reynolds)

The author further explains that the Human mind is shaped by the social process and the content of the mind is shaped by the language, symbols, political arrangements, and laws. The human self is designed to expand and form groups.  Were an individual identifies not only as an individual but as a member of the group. But with this also comes the instinct to find difference in many groups and to become better through comparing themselves to other groups.