Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”
Mob appeal is an attempt to persuade others by either making them feel like they want to be ‘one of the guys’ or by preying on the emotions of a large crowd. Socrates once said: “The crowd cannot be a lover of wisdom.”
Reading through Proverbs and Ecclesiastes we see that God has called us to a life of wisdom and discernment. We are not to buckle under ‘peer’ pressure or to any charismatic speaker trying to motivate or manipulate the masses.
Where we see this type of appeal is often in politics. For example: Often we find the Democratic party referring to themselves as the party of the ‘working man’ or the Republican party as ‘being against the lawyers and being outside of the establishment’ – even though many have been in public office most of their lives.
We see this “mob appeal” also in advertisement. I was watching TV when the advertisement for the Chevrolet truck came on, set in the background ‘out on the range’ surrounded by cowboys. Another advertisement was in the midst of a steel plant and a voice was saying that the truck is built like a ‘rock.’
The thing against the “mob appeal” is that it distracts from the main point and makes us want to be a part of the mob or the crowd.
To me one of the main dangers of this emotional appeal is that it plays at one of our most vital needs; the need to be accepted. One of the ways that Satan keeps people locked into their little kingdoms is through the bars of acceptance and rejection. We are afraid of being rejected by our peers and so we find ourselves going along with the crowd. In other words, everyone else is doing it and you will not be cool (part of the group) if you do not go along.
One of the things that has been speaking to me is what is called the “spiral of silence.” Because of “mob appeal,” going along with the crowd, we find that we do not speak out even though we know that what is being said is wrong, a fallacy. We do not want to be the ‘odd man’ out!
Socrates said: “The crowd cannot be a lover of wisdom.” Often, we have found out that some very popular ideas have turned out to be ‘very false.’ Look at Hitler in the 1930s who rode to power on a radical wave of popularity.
I often think of this verse in Proverbs: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12