Riots

Some psychologists are confounded by riots taking place in the world but are also quick to judge perceived injustice, political motives, or racism as the cause. Many rioters are not desperately poor. Many of those "rioting" are just stealing stuff like clothes, shoes and electronic devises that they do not even need.

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Riots have broken out after and even during hockey, football, rugby, and soccer games. In Constantinople the Nika riots over the course of a week in 532 CE when some of the most violent riots in the city's history, burned half of Constantinople with tens of thousands of people killed.

Was it a race war? In a manner of speaking you could say that. At the Hippodrome on January 13, 532, at the end of the 22nd chariot race crowed began to chant NIKA! NIKA!

The term can be translated WIN! WIN! but it really means victory by conquering. In Greek it is the root word of Nicolaitan whose deeds God hates.

Those chanting were the two teams, Blues and Greens. There were other teams like red and white but they were less significant. These sport teams also had a political element to them. They would shout political chants between races and events.

Justinian and an officials, John the Cappadocian had been reducing the civil service and combating corruption. The shadow government of the power elite resisted this attempt at draining the swamp of a vast bureaucracy. many of those who lost or feared loosing their lucrative positions joined the ranks of the Greens.

Justinian reduced the political influence and lobbying power of both Blue and Green teams. Both cited these reforms as imperial oppression. Romans believed themselves "chosen by God" and Justinian reform of their codes in thirteen months was praised by some but gave the appearance of a cause to be angry by others. They had slowed to a crawl because the aristocracy objected and were hindering him at every opportunity. A reduction of rules and a simplification of the codes made it impossible for the aristocracy, power elite, to use the complex codes and obscure laws avoid unfavorable verdicts or prosecutions of themselves.

There were accusations concerning a murder by a Blue and a Green whose sentence had been commuted from death to imprisonment rather than a pardon. But that seemed to just be a means to ignite the growing tension.

Many of the senators saw this as an opportunity to overthrow Justinian. They and the aristocratic shadow government had opposed his reforms and popularity. They encouraged the Blue and Greens who attacked the palace and elected a new emperor, Hypatius. On his coronation day Narses carrying a bag of gold given to him by Justinian came into the Hippodrome and bribed the leaders of the Blue team to withdraw their support from Hypatius and the Greens. Upon leaving thirty thousand rioters were killed as rebels by the army of Belisarius and Mundus who stormed into the Hippodrome.

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Crowd psychology

Crowd psychology is the broad study of how individual behavior is impacted when large crowds group together, often with a negative social impact or later included emergency-type of environments producing more positive social impacts. ...

Scipio Sighele and Gabriel Tarde, Gustave LeBon and Freud examined the theory of Crowd psychology and added to it.

Is the social impact predictable long before the triggering event?

What is the main motivation at play in crowd psychology?

Are there preconditions in society that lend to turning members toward mor positive reactions or negative reactions in society?

Does the culture, ideology, and values within society channel a preassigned reaction of society during any crises that may occur?

Do factors in society like policies and practices, customs and relationships predetermine the likely response of the crowd?

Some, like Columbia University's Tory Higgins, a professor of psychology, believes that riots such as the these typically occur when people feel "ineffective." "In situations like this, there is a long period prior to the riot of feeling that you're not in control of your own life.

People standing in line at COSCO to buy toilet paper they did not need were asked why? There response was as if it was a logical reason, "Everyone else is."

What preexisting condition compels an individual to do something he has no interest in or need to do simply because he thinks everyone else is doing it? Politicians, entertainment, and commercial advertisement depend upon that phenomena every day.

What emotional state or psychological conditions makes an individdual more vulnerable to the influence of the crowd or mob.

While a shared antagonism towards authority allowed rivalries to supersede group identity.

There is fear but also the release or nullification of fear.

The feeling of power this created among participants is what helped the riots grow and spread.

Certainly, rioters who loot and rob, break and burn their own neighborhoods and communities would be a clear sign of that perfect savagery predicted by Polybius long before the first Emperor seized control of the Republic. Roman history was punctuated with such riots as it went from a capitalist practicing Republic to a social Democracy with its free bread and circuses. Long before its fall its fate was sealed by its apathy, immorality, and covetous practices.

But what are the early signs of that degeneration of both individuals and society? Riots are not caused by a few provocateurs who may mingle in the crowds but caused by the spirit of selfishness that has already made a home in the hearts of the inhabitance of the city.

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• "Men nowadays no longer secretly, but openly outrage the wives of others, and allow others access to their own wives. A match is thought countrified, uncivilized, in bad style, and to be protested against by all matrons, if the husband should forbid his wife to appear in public in a litter, and to be carried about exposed to the gaze of all observers. If a man has not made himself notorious by a liaison with some mistress, if he does not pay an annuity to some one else's wife, married women speak of him as a poor-spirited creature, a man given to low vice, a lover of servant girls. Soon adultery becomes the most respectable form of marriage, and widowhood and celibacy are commonly practised. No one takes a wife unless he takes her away from some one else. Now men vie with one another in wasting what they have stolen, and in collecting together what they have wasted with the keenest avarice; they become utterly reckless, scorn poverty in others, fear personal injury more than anything else, break the peace by their riots, and by violence and terror domineer over those who are weaker than themselves. No wonder that they plunder provinces and offer the seat of judgment for sale, knocking it down after an auction to the highest bidder, since it is the law of nations that you may sell what you have bought."

Seneca ON BENEFITS

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Even the Greek word korban is related to the term korbanas, signifying the “temple treasury.” The Jewish historian Josephus makes it clear that funds from the temple treasury were called “Corban,” hence could not be used for secular purposes, e.g., city improvements, as in the building of an aqueduct for water supply.

The same term is translated treasury in Matthew 27:6, "And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood."

Pontius Pilate had put down riots because the Corban. The people's social security money that was kept in the temple treasury was used to build an aqueduct. Despite what people like to think there is no separation of funds in these government treasuries so while Pilate's actions were brutal his position was legally correct.