Herd instinct

On 15 November, the rumour that a woman in a yard in Boseja had partly turned into a snake, spread through Maun like wildfire. Hundreds of people were moving to the woman's compound and taxi's had a filed day. Traffci in the area was jammed and people outside the yard demanded entrance as they 'had the right' to go and look at the snake woman. People were throwing stones and threatening to burn the house down so that the woman would have to come out. At last, someone alerted the police, who came to restore order. The crowd was so determined that the police had to use force to disperse the people. Later on, people complained the had been injured because the police had beaten them. The woman in question was an innocent elderly lady who remained mainly indoors. Incidents like these show that people are typical herd animals. Once the herd instinct sets in, there is no more individual thinking and behaviour and the mob rules. Quite scary actually...