Upon reflecting upon the comparison between our current economic crisis and the Great Depression, I came across the realization that during both events, a surge of populism radically changed/is changing the way the country is run/being run.  Many feel the populism  is the best way to run a government; the truest representation of the will of the people and I can’t deny that populist approaches to government do have their appeal.  We all want to live in a country where we all have an equal say and our country and perhaps the easiest way we see that becoming 100% true is through populism.

But the populist approach to governance is more analogous and more conducive to the crazed and violent mob at a Wal-Mart store offering discounts for Black Friday than the best scenario for our government, or any government.  Populism amounts to mob rule and mobs are stupid.  The mob at that Wal-Mart last Black Friday actually trampled a guy to death.  That’s right, people were so intent on trying to be among the first ones in they allowed somebody to die because he (a Wal-Mart worker) was in their way.  Of course it isn’t any one individual from that crowd’s fault, because, as pretty much anyone who has ever been with a large group of people can attest to, the crowd takes on a life of its own.

Depressions, or in this case recessions, seem to bring out the worst of the mobs and the loudest cries for populism.  People in America and abroad (especially this week at the G20 summit) are so mad and blinded by the current economic situation they are willing to do basically anything to let their wrath be known.  CEOs of big companies get death threats daily, even CEOs who didn’t receive bailouts from the federal government.  Bankers and businessmen in London have gotten so many threats ahead of the G20 event there that London Police are actually advising them to go incognito.

And mob rule doesn’t isn’t even consistant.  Mobs, unlike the people who constitute them, can’t think, can’t rationalize, can’t even remember.  All they can do is react.