Collective Lunacy

There's something about our times that brings to (my) mind the phenomenon known as mass hysteria as well as other names.  It's appeared now and then in our history.  Most examples known began to take place in the medieval period and have continued since then.  It's interesting that we don't hear much about similar events taking place in ancient times.  That fact is worthy of study, but not here, not now.

Above is a painting by Pieter Brueghel the Younger of an example of Dancing Plague which took place in the 16th century in Belgium.  There were earlier manifestation of that plague, such as the one which took place in the 14th century in Aachen, Germany.  A woman left her home in that case, and began dancing in the street (or what passed for one at that time) for no apparent reason and to no purpose.  She kept dancing for days.  Others began to dance as well.  They also kept dancing.  It's said that thousands did the same eventually.  They stopped dancing eventually, also for no apparent reason.

Sources tell us that efforts were made to stop the dancing, with no effect.  Among the efforts was hiring musicians and (normal) dancers in the hope that when they stopped playing and dancing the (abnormal) dancers would stop as well.  This makes a certain sense, if anything does.  It didn't work.

I wonder if that's what's going on in the painting by Brueghel, given the presence in it of men depicted playing bagpipes.  Men are shown trying to restrain the dancers as well; but it's possible that grabbing the arms was a part of whatever dance was taking place.

My favorite historical example of mass hysteria is the case of the Meowing Nuns of France.  One of the nuns in a particular convent began to meow like a cat one day.  Others began to meow.   Eventually, all the nuns would gather together to meow at particular times of day, as they normally would to pray together, one would think.  The association of cats with Satan was thought significant.  Soldiers were brought in, and they whipped and tortured the nuns until they agreed to stop meowing.  I wonder if they continued to meow when the soldiers left, but in secret.

Then there are the Biting Nuns of Germany.   A nun in a convent in the 15th began to bite her sisters,  They began to bite each other.  This biting behavior spread to other convents, not only in Germany but in Holland, and even to Rome.  The Biting Plague continued, it seems, for some centuries.  

Outbreaks of mass hysteria took place later than the Middle Ages.  The Salem Witch Trials are considered to be an example of it.  In the 1960s, a laughing epidemic broke out in Tanganyika, at a mission school.  The students began laughing, and continued to laugh for up to 16 days.  The laughing spread to other schools and the surrounding area, up to a radius of 100 miles from the school at which it began.  Subsequently, the laughing stopped.  The cause of the laughter is not definitely known.  I know I laugh whenever I think of nuns meowing together, but stop when I'm distracted from the thought of them.

These kind of outbreaks of hysteria are no longer attributed to demons.  Instead, anxiety, stress, psychosis and such are said to be causes.  Perhaps there's some kind of herd instinct involved.  We live in anxious and stressful times.  The hysteria, or whatever it may be, that spread centuries ago, whether by contagion or some other means, spread in a sense by contact or encounter with other people inexplicably dancing, meowing or biting.  The technology of those times limited exposure.  There's no limit now to exposure to the irrational.

So we have copycat killers or terrorists, who may find the details of the crimes of others easily.  All of us may witness the disturbing conduct of others, their speech and writing, instantly and directly, no matter how mad, unsupported, malicious, deceitful or harmful it may be.  Each of us is our own censor and guide to the lunacy on display, and how will we react to it if we haven't learned to make intelligent judgments?

To put it simply, we'll dance when others dance, bite when others bite, meow when others meow merely because others are doing it as well.  There is safety in numbers, and safety from the world when there are many we can join in disregarding it by denying it and pretending it to be otherwise.  Those who engaged in mass hysteria in the past were for the most part poorer and less educated than we are.  Their lives were shorter due to lack of good medical care and hygiene; they had much to fear, and there was much to cause anxiety.

That's not the case now, but judging from what we see and hear and do there's much to be afraid of in these times.  Perhaps that which drives people to see conspiracies everywhere regardless of evidence, consider convicted criminals as hostages for no good reason, classify slavery as something which could have been negotiated, and believe whatever it is certain people tell them to believe, is similar to what made them dance, bite, meow and do other ridiculous things.  Maybe it's a reaction in response to fear and anxiety which defies reason, and is a kind of escape.

How will artists depict the collective lunacy of our times?