Both Baylor and Texas Tech have reason to be proud of their basketball programs this week. Baylor women won the National Championship and the Red Raider men lost in overtime in a hard-fought battle for the National Championship. Congratulations to both teams on their achievement.
The success of both of these programs will help the schools continue to recruit exceptional athletes. Success tends to build upon success. People are drawn to winners -- whether it be a sports program or, a company.
It was disappointing that the success at Tech was marred by rioting after their win on Saturday. There are almost always unruly elements in a crowd of people and it is well known that crowd behavior can cause even those who are normally self-controlled and law-abiding to join into the unacceptable actions instigated by a few.
Why is there such a tendency to follow a crowd? Is it the desire to fit in? Is it a deeper instinct wired into our genetics that causes us to lose our individual thought and be drawn along?
I suspect that deep within all of us is an unruly, violent animal that is held in check only by the control we have been taught by our parents and society. In any instance when the barriers are broken and such behavior can be exercised in an environment where it seems acceptable, the beast within shows its true colors -- the animal nature takes control.
From that perspective, it probably is a hard-wired genetic code. It is part of the survival instincts which drive the soldier to kill, the parent to defend and the cornered to lash out. It is a necessary characteristic of survival. That doesn't make it acceptable in a celebratory setting.
Throughout history there have been those who have utilized this tendency to mob violence to incite crowds into actions which the individuals involved would not normally contemplate otherwise. Rock-throwing, window breaking, destructive crowds erupt with little instigation. They are weaponized by a handful who incite them through words and actions that break through the thin barriers of restraint that allow us to live in close proximity.
My thoughts have drifted this morning. What I really want to say is, congratulations to the Baylor women's and Texas Tech men's basketball programs. You made us all proud.
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