crowd-psychology

In this chapter, Tom Miley, the public relations man for the android Alex Wildsmith, arrives at the KWFN studio after a chaotic News Therapy Show where Wildsmith performed multiple roles and incited a near-riot among the audience. Tom hires a private detective, Joe Greenwich, and his advanced car, Roscoe, to locate Wildsmith and Mrs. Rubinoff, who have left the studio and are now at a Malibu cabana. The chapter reveals tensions involving political intrigue, surveillance, and the challenges of managing Wildsmith's public appearances.

The chapter critically examines Gustave Le Bon's 19th-century crowd theory, highlighting its racist and misogynistic foundations and its influence on historical figures and psychological experiments like Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment. It challenges the notion of crowds as irrational and mindless, revealing through participant interviews and expert critiques that crowd behavior often involves ideological intent and moral justification. The author reflects on the complexities of public shaming, acknowledging personal involvement driven by a desire to do good while recognizing the darker impulses underlying such collective actions.