I'm glad I joined this discussion when I did, because I've already been doing some research on group mentality and why people do things that other people see as obscene, inconceivable or cruel, and protest that "I would never do that."
It is very easy to look at stuff like this from an outsiders viewpoint and say "Oh, that's horrible. I could never do that. I would be the voice of reason, the one telling everyone else that it's wrong." In the actual situation, however, it might be easier to be brought under the sway of the group than you might think.
I don't know if anyone is familiar with the story of "The Wave", a classroom experiment performed in Palo Alto, California in the 1960's, but it applies here. After viewing a video on Nazi Germany, Ben Ross's students ere all telling him that "it could never happen again" and that "I would never do that." He essentially made these students into guinea pigs in an "experiment that got out of hand": it started off simply -he presented them with the concept of "Srength through discipline, strength through community, strength through action", basically streamlining the students in his class for success through militaristic behaviors. Next came membership cards for those in The Wave, along with the appointment of "Monitors" who were to keep tabs on the other students who were in The Wave and to attempt to "convert" students who weren't. The students all went along with this because they felt it was what they were supposed to do: it became sort of a game for most of them, and they all wanted to be the best. Pretty soon they were segregating themselves into Wave members and non-Wave members, with those who were not in the Wave receiving some pretty harsh treatment from those who were, who felt they were elite.
My point is, most of the school went along with this programming without even realizing what it was that was happening to them. It was something that they were told to do, and they did it. It became the norm, and was hardly ever questioned, much like The Lottery. These behaviors are so deeply programmed into people that they don't even recognize them -it's just what's done, like wearing clean clothes to work or brushing your teeth at night. If rituals will make life better, then okay, let's do that. There's a reason that deprogramming is necessary to stop this sort of thing when it gets extreme: everyone sees it as normal.
Influence of norms and group mentality
It is very easy to look at stuff like this from an outsiders viewpoint and say "Oh, that's horrible. I could never do that. I would be the voice of reason, the one telling everyone else that it's wrong." In the actual situation, however, it might be easier to be brought under the sway of the group than you might think.
I don't know if anyone is familiar with the story of "The Wave", a classroom experiment performed in Palo Alto, California in the 1960's, but it applies here. After viewing a video on Nazi Germany, Ben Ross's students ere all telling him that "it could never happen again" and that "I would never do that." He essentially made these students into guinea pigs in an "experiment that got out of hand": it started off simply -he presented them with the concept of "Srength through discipline, strength through community, strength through action", basically streamlining the students in his class for success through militaristic behaviors. Next came membership cards for those in The Wave, along with the appointment of "Monitors" who were to keep tabs on the other students who were in The Wave and to attempt to "convert" students who weren't. The students all went along with this because they felt it was what they were supposed to do: it became sort of a game for most of them, and they all wanted to be the best. Pretty soon they were segregating themselves into Wave members and non-Wave members, with those who were not in the Wave receiving some pretty harsh treatment from those who were, who felt they were elite.
My point is, most of the school went along with this programming without even realizing what it was that was happening to them. It was something that they were told to do, and they did it. It became the norm, and was hardly ever questioned, much like The Lottery. These behaviors are so deeply programmed into people that they don't even recognize them -it's just what's done, like wearing clean clothes to work or brushing your teeth at night. If rituals will make life better, then okay, let's do that.
There's a reason that deprogramming is necessary to stop this sort of thing when it gets extreme: everyone sees it as normal.
Sangrita, Slytherin