Also look for the 'low pressure' areas, where people are moving away from (like the center of the crowd or the back of it).
The chair+ window thing reminded me of the story behind 'Smoke on the Water' which was a very serious fire at a show. Frank Zappa, of all people, used his guitar to break down a structural glass window to give the kids at the show another avenue of escape. He didn't think twice about destroying what was then a very expensive guitar, his thought was 'get these people out of here'.
Some of the worst fires catastrophes out there where places with highly limited exits (same for crowd deaths). If I can't get out of there faster than I got in, I get nervous and leave.
Crowds to avoid? Alcohol, drug impaired. Black Friday. Picketing. Union busting. Protests. Riots. Mostly peaceful gatherings. Klan rallies. Grand Openings. Government cheese giveaways. Elevators. Lots of FBI agents in lookalike mufti. Mosh pits. Pride parades. Stadiums. Sports events. Urban malls. Suburban malls. Air shows. Drifting melees downtown after dark. 1 or more bears in the deep woods. Sneezy people. People who don't look or smell like you. Smokers. Battlefields. Koran, Bible or other book burnings. Barbra Streisand concerts (though, thankfully, that risk has largely passed). But the problem is pretty much a no-brainer. Avoid crowds.
Don't forget to avoid military intelligence psy-op units dressed in anitifa hoodies and CIA theater department actors trying to be rowdy pro-palestinian activists on a college campus. Actually, you won't have a hard time avoiding those fake events because they subtly keep anyone who is not a crisis actor away from the ground zero of these events. They can use police cordons or any number of blocking tactics that you won't realize are being done.
I never met any military intelligence psy-op types, but I suspect they are sleezebags of the lowest order if they are operating in the U.S. against American citizens.
I really, Really, REALLY do NOT like crowds. At BEST the crowd IQ is like parallel resistance. That's BEST CASE. There are FAR too many stories of crush-exit (Coconut Grove, anyone? THAT is the reason that there are normal door on both side of revolving doors... well ANOTHER reason... the SAME disaster happened at a theater in Chicago a few decades earlier...
Also, I am AMAZED by the folks who said they were followed (in vehicle) who did NOT do the obvious thing: Drive to Police Station. Even if the Cop Shop doesn't do a thing, it might just suggest "be elsewhere" to the goobers.
That a crowd can exert such astonishing sideways forces should not be surprising; this was how ancient wars were fought. The fabled Spartans used their battle formation to become a bronze-clad biotic bulldozer with lots of murderously pointy bronze bits sticking out for extra hurt. They moved with each man putting the bowl of his great round shield into the lower back of the man in front, all pressing forward in unison. They were directed the madness of crowds toward a military end. I argue the very design of the classical ancient Hellenic shield was made to capitalize on the very tendencies of a maddened crowd to pick one direction and to mash together. Think of it: the ancient Hellene polis deliberately gathered and aimed panicked mobs at each other as a form of warfare...both brilliant and kinda sad when you consider it.
Thank you for this essay. I'm a big one for avoiding mobs exceeding my magazine capacity.
So there I was. On a lake as a Volunteer Boat Patrol person, not at the wheel which was not good for reasons. There it was, the boat parade of enthusiastic supporters who were supposed to start at point A, do a box, finish at point A and disperse. Well, the volunteers didn't have the radio band the paraders were on so I can only extrapolate from results and an informal AAR (WTF? Well, this happened...).
But folks stopped listening to the guy leading the parade. And then they decided that a bunch of people going faster and faster in some pretty sizable boats for that body of water who were not listening to the ringleader were unsafe. And they should leave. All of them decided this. Nearly simultaneously. And God be thankit mostly in the same direction. Have you ever been in a boat stampede? Maybe I should volunteer this story in a "there I was" someday.
Also look for the 'low pressure' areas, where people are moving away from (like the center of the crowd or the back of it).
The chair+ window thing reminded me of the story behind 'Smoke on the Water' which was a very serious fire at a show. Frank Zappa, of all people, used his guitar to break down a structural glass window to give the kids at the show another avenue of escape. He didn't think twice about destroying what was then a very expensive guitar, his thought was 'get these people out of here'.
Some of the worst fires catastrophes out there where places with highly limited exits (same for crowd deaths). If I can't get out of there faster than I got in, I get nervous and leave.
Crowds to avoid? Alcohol, drug impaired. Black Friday. Picketing. Union busting. Protests. Riots. Mostly peaceful gatherings. Klan rallies. Grand Openings. Government cheese giveaways. Elevators. Lots of FBI agents in lookalike mufti. Mosh pits. Pride parades. Stadiums. Sports events. Urban malls. Suburban malls. Air shows. Drifting melees downtown after dark. 1 or more bears in the deep woods. Sneezy people. People who don't look or smell like you. Smokers. Battlefields. Koran, Bible or other book burnings. Barbra Streisand concerts (though, thankfully, that risk has largely passed). But the problem is pretty much a no-brainer. Avoid crowds.
Don't forget to avoid military intelligence psy-op units dressed in anitifa hoodies and CIA theater department actors trying to be rowdy pro-palestinian activists on a college campus. Actually, you won't have a hard time avoiding those fake events because they subtly keep anyone who is not a crisis actor away from the ground zero of these events. They can use police cordons or any number of blocking tactics that you won't realize are being done.
I never met any military intelligence psy-op types, but I suspect they are sleezebags of the lowest order if they are operating in the U.S. against American citizens.
I really, Really, REALLY do NOT like crowds. At BEST the crowd IQ is like parallel resistance. That's BEST CASE. There are FAR too many stories of crush-exit (Coconut Grove, anyone? THAT is the reason that there are normal door on both side of revolving doors... well ANOTHER reason... the SAME disaster happened at a theater in Chicago a few decades earlier...
Also, I am AMAZED by the folks who said they were followed (in vehicle) who did NOT do the obvious thing: Drive to Police Station. Even if the Cop Shop doesn't do a thing, it might just suggest "be elsewhere" to the goobers.
The easiest rally point is the car everyone came in.
That a crowd can exert such astonishing sideways forces should not be surprising; this was how ancient wars were fought. The fabled Spartans used their battle formation to become a bronze-clad biotic bulldozer with lots of murderously pointy bronze bits sticking out for extra hurt. They moved with each man putting the bowl of his great round shield into the lower back of the man in front, all pressing forward in unison. They were directed the madness of crowds toward a military end. I argue the very design of the classical ancient Hellenic shield was made to capitalize on the very tendencies of a maddened crowd to pick one direction and to mash together. Think of it: the ancient Hellene polis deliberately gathered and aimed panicked mobs at each other as a form of warfare...both brilliant and kinda sad when you consider it.
Thank you for this essay. I'm a big one for avoiding mobs exceeding my magazine capacity.
So there I was. On a lake as a Volunteer Boat Patrol person, not at the wheel which was not good for reasons. There it was, the boat parade of enthusiastic supporters who were supposed to start at point A, do a box, finish at point A and disperse. Well, the volunteers didn't have the radio band the paraders were on so I can only extrapolate from results and an informal AAR (WTF? Well, this happened...).
But folks stopped listening to the guy leading the parade. And then they decided that a bunch of people going faster and faster in some pretty sizable boats for that body of water who were not listening to the ringleader were unsafe. And they should leave. All of them decided this. Nearly simultaneously. And God be thankit mostly in the same direction. Have you ever been in a boat stampede? Maybe I should volunteer this story in a "there I was" someday.
Quite a useful PSA in your usual way, Lawdog.