Nigel 
July 29th,2010We were stationary in traffic waiting for the lights to change.
The car window was as open as it will go.
Was that a siren?
No. Because it stopped. But it was followed by more noise. Like someone talking through a cheap pa system.
It was someone talking,a pre-recorded message.
The message is above as title to this post. It kept repeating. The hazard lights of the moving bus were flashing,so this was probably not a prank. 999 is the number we in Britain ring for the emergency services. Unfortunately apart from it being illegal to use my phone while driving,I didn’t have it with me.
Okay so that’s weird,but there was more.
There were many pedestrians near the bus. Most people apart from me carry their mobile phone everywhere;it’s more important to them than their front door key.
But I could see not one person making a phone call.
It reminded me of the time when I was about nine and on the way from school to catch a bus home. In those days schools didn’t lay on special buses,and kids were expected to walk to the bus stop. I turned a corner into the main road and there at one side of the footpath (sidewalk) lay an adult,apparently unconscious.
All sorts of thoughts went through my mind. Clearly I had to do something. But what? At that stage I had no first aid training. Should I phone the police? What if it was a hoax,maybe Candid Camera? And why was everyone else just walking past? They were adults and therefore obviously knew more than me about how to react and stuff –I changed my mind on that within a few years.
So what was going on? Mainly two things. Firstly everyone was doing the same as me,assuming someone else more able would deal with the situation. Secondly we all kept walking because everyone else kept walking.
And the frightening thing is that most of us behave like that most of the time.
There has been a case of a girl being beaten up and killed on the street. The murder was clearly visible,and noisy enough that many neighbours looked out to see what was happening.
Yet not one rang the police.
Were they in shock,or did each one assume everyone else would be ringing?
There was what may have been a reverse example of this recently in Germany. During a Love Parade last Saturday at Duisberg nineteen people were killed when a crowd ‘panicked’. Apparently when the venue became overfull police tried to stop any more people entering,but at the other end of a tunnel they didn’t know what was happening and presumably (I don’t know) just started pushing impatiently.
Something similar happened at the Hillsborough football ground in 1989. You can find a summary of events,as far as they’re understood,here. I sometimes feel quite angry at the idiots trying to get in who decided to push,but then I wonder how I might have behaved had I been there. Some of the people trying to get in had been drinking. Maybe someone influential in the crowd shouted ”What’s the hold up? Let us in or we’ll shove our way in!”(I omit adjectives). Maybe someone else wanting to impress said alpha male decided to start shoving,and others in the group thought,this is a laugh,and I’m fed up of waiting,so let’s all push. Once enough people are pushing you have to be pretty strong-willed and self-assured not to join in. At the very least you keep your mouth shut.
So at Duisberg did we have people keeping their mouths shut during those few seconds between stupidity starting and it getting out of control,leading to panic elsewhere? It would be understandable. Everyone decided to leave it to someone else more capable of taking charge. And how many people panicked without knowing why just because they thought other people were panicking?
Basically we’re all irrational.
But sometimes it would be good if we remembered our weaknesses,so here are a some rules to go on with:
1. The crowd is often wrong,so check whether their response really makes sense.
2. Don’t look to see what other people are doing. Think it through and make your own mind up. Be an individual.
3. Everyone else is waiting for you to act,so if there’s something helpful you can do,do it. Emergency services would rather have a hundred calls than none.
Remember,the total IQ of a crowd is in single figures. Even a moron has an IQ over 50.
