| This is very similiar to "flash mobs" - In my early 20s I had the misfortune of stupidly taking part in one. Esentially, it's a group of people directing a larger group of people who've decided it's funny to tinker with social scripts (i.e. we behave in certain ways in certain situations, engage in a script.)
This one wasn't very interesting - I don't see what the point of it really was. It was amusing /shrug
The one I saw was at least more interesting. At a mall in Scottsdale a group of about 30 'flash mobbers' pretended to line up for the men's bathroom. However, the hall was a L shape, we formed the line on the x axis while the z axis (past the corner, where the bathroom was) had no one waiting to use it. The principle of this flash mob was that people will line up and copy everyone else without actually going around and checking the corner. In reality there's 30 people just standing in line next to a corner with a unused bathroom. Sure enough, people began lining up to use the bathroom. This went on a good 15 minutes before security intervened.
What does it really prove though? What does it accomplish? We made people stand in line on the assumption others were waiting in line. Should they have to always be on guard and ask themselves "why would there be a random line of people standing here just to fuck with me?" What was the point of this one? That it's wrong to go into a best buy and assume the person in a blue shirt/khaki pants is an employee?
Pointless really, I still hate the fact I participated in one. The reason these assumptions work is only idiots will fuck with them for the sake of fucking with them. | 