I’ve been reading Ann Coulter’s new book Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America which examines emotional groupthink and its negative consequences. So expressions of the mob have become particularly fascinating.

Coulter notes that the full flowering of the mob came during the French Revolution, in which the mob’s Reign of Terror caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people, from the King and Queen of France to the revolution’s own leaders like Robespierre. By comparison, the American Revolution was remarkably principled and orderly as armed uprisings go.

The current colorful example of the mob in action is filled with leftist excuses for violence and theft. The AP shared a revealing quote (from Britain burns: Riots spread through UK cities, Aug. 9, 2011):

“This is the uprising of the working class. We’re redistributing the wealth,” said Bryn Phillips, a 28-year-old self-described anarchist, as young people emerged from the store with chocolate bars and ice cream cones.

In the video below, a looter in Clapham Junction claims the theft is a kind of tax refund. Brilliant. It’s a Marxist version of H&R Block in which imagined victimhood justifies crime and violence.

It’s too bad the British people have been disarmed by the government and have no guns to defend themselves and their property.