The interesting thing about the term "flash mob" is that it was invented by performance art groups (generally theater students, or groups of out-of-work actors) in NY and LA several years ago to describe their new method of infiltrating a bunch of actors into a large public space (like a park, or a train station, or a mall) and then suddenly having them all come together for a huge performance of some sort (usually something very silly or absurd) to sort of mess with people in a playful, absurdist way, and they when it was over, they'd just fade back into the crowd like nothing happened...
When gangs of rowdy teens in some large urban areas (like LA) started using social networking (like Twitter) to gather big crowds of their rowdy, lawless, irresponsible friends to go on senseless rampages of looting, vandalism, and assault, for some reason the media started calling these activities "flash mobs" too. They were anything BUT...
Calling these social-networking driven acts of mass teenage mayhem a "flash mob" is like calling a Boy Scout Camp a concentration camp. Sure they both involve sub-standard housing. Sure, there are men in uniforms at both. And sure there are mottos over the gate at both, but the REASON and intended OUTCOME of the two couldn't be more different.
And similarly, sure a theatrical flash mob and these social-networking-driven race riots have a few things in common. They both involve large groups of people. They both force the public to interact with these pre-planned activities. They both use social networking, new media and other technologies to plan, coordinate, and carry out their actions. But they are NOT the same thing, the do NOT have the same intent, and they don NOT even remotely have the same desired outcomes.
The reason the term "flash mobs" has a bad rap isn't because of anything the people who actually do REAL flash mobs have done. It's because the media--in their infinite capacity to call a heart a club--has applied the term to something that is completely unrelated, and turned it on it;s head to mean something it never meant...
The first video below is a real flash mob. The second link is just a bunch of punk kids raising hell. But the media calls these two events by the same name...
[video=youtube;7EYAUazLI9k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k[/video]
[video=youtube;LcfJA8FQrIM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcfJA8FQrIM[/video]
I'd like to think that the real reason this term has been confused by the media is because they are just illiterate politically-correct idiots who can't call a race riot a race riot, and don't have the intellectual ability to come up with a new catchy term to describe something they don't understand.
But I think perhaps there is something a little more sinister behind this co-opting of a harmless term for what was originally a harmless event, and giving it violent, negative connotations. I think perhaps the non-violent, fun, wacky, absurdist expressions of creativity displayed by the "original" flash mobs of the theatrical type are actually seen by the System as a GREATER threat to the status quo than violent race riots, because they immerse the general public in an unexplainable event that is non-threatening, and they make people think, ask questions, and critically examine what they believe to be their reality.
Theatrical flash mobs where people sing and dance to "the Sound of Music", or dance like Michael Jackson's zombies to "Thriller" are the sort of non-approved entertainment that the System is most afraid of. They are sudden, everyone ends up smiling and enjoying the spectacle, and it gives people a reason to talk to each other, discuss their perceptions, and compare notes as to what their perceived reality actually is.
And that, dear friends--an awake, aware, and communicative public--is FAR more dangerous to the System than any "dirty bomb" or "race riot" because it causes people to actually THINK and TALK TO EACH OTHER rather than cower in their living rooms and be fed their reality through a cable...
The control of information IS the control of reality. When the System loses control of the flow of information, they lose control over society, and THAT is what this is REALLY all about...