The psychology of crowds

Wikipedia describes crowd psychology, which is also known as mob psychology, as a phenomenon wherein the psychology and behaviour of the crowd "differs from and interacts with that of the individuals within it... Crowd behaviour is heavily influenced by the loss of responsibility of the individual and the impression of universality of behaviour, both of which increase with the size of the crowd".

And a loss of responsibility is what we definitely experienced this week when a horde of irate Maltese descended upon the Facebook page of Cecilia Malmstrom and egged each other on as to who would post the rudest and most obnoxious message.

The following is a sample taken from thousands of messages posted on Ms Malmstrom's wall. Apologies for the spelling and grammar - I reproduced them exactly as I found them.

"cecilia malmstrom (witch) take our immigrant to your home if you love them !!! or take them to your country."

"Ghax ma ddahlux f'oxxok il vapur." ("Why don't you shove the boat up your [slang for vagina].")

"I am certain that not even Auschwitz and Majdanek camps can takes all the illegal imigrants that we have here. Malta is just a dott in the Mediteranean sea."

"i make you a sugesstion why don't you take some of them, i guess no eh you know they are troublesome they're getting to our island illness that we haven't seen for 70yrs they get drunk rape our daughters & we are afraid of them as our neighbours. How dare you impose them on us is that the meaning of EU going illegal this is the downfall of the EU i tell you."

"Komplu aqlawla lil di iz-zibel." ("Just keep on bashing this piece of trash.")

"do you have SHAMPOO AND CONDITIONER in Sweden Ms Malstrom?"

"Keep them in your house if you want kaxxa zibel (box of rubbish)"

"Cecilia Malmström, those cheap Ikea glasses are preventing you from seeing the world clearly. As to why you cannot process logic..."

"Malta tal-Maltin. Mur tnejjek." ("Malta for the Maltese. Go screw yourself.")

"are you looking for a Black Dick Cicillia ?"

I guess that you get the general drift. It was a case of a virtual mob descending on a Facebook wall and letting rip in the most disgusting of manners. I tried to read all the comments but at a certain point I was so disgusted that I simply could not read further.

What caused me most concern, however, is the fact that we could easily end up with a situation where the mob rule moved from the virtual to the real world, with potentially devastating results.

A few weeks ago we witnessed a racist attack by bus passengers on their driver, who was a black French lady working for Arriva. Is it such a stretch to imagine a crowd of enflamed Maltese setting upon an "ILLEGAL INVADER" as they are wont to describe them, capital letters and all?

I would like to think that it will never come to that, but frankly I very much fear that it will. Over the last few weeks the xenophobic frenzy that has gripped the nation has not subsided: if anything it is feeding upon itself and becoming a monster with a life and energy of its own.

If something is not done to tame the beast, it will claim a victim. Clearly the authorities have to act in order to defuse the situation and to ensure that no violence ensues.

As for the people who splattered Cecilia Malmstrom's wall with such horrible insults and vulgarities - shame on you all. Your racism and ignorance sicken me.

It is a real pity that I have to share my home, Malta, with you. I wish I could push you back somewhere far away, but unfortunately for me, it is not an option.