By Martin H. Levinson

If two heads are better than one, then four heads would be better than two, eight better than four, and so on with regard to getting lots of heads together to come up with smart solutions. It is wondrous to behold the wisdom that can emanate from large groups of people and such wisdom has been demonstrated many times over during the course of human history. To wit:

In the spring of 1692, a group of young girls in Salem, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. The village burghers, decent God-fearing folks who believed children should be seen, and also heard, convened a special court in Salem to hear the cases.

The first convicted witch, Bridget Bishop, was hanged in June. Eighteen others followed Bishop to Salem’s Gallows Hill, while some 150 men, women, and children were accused over the next several months. Years later, the citizens of Salem had second thoughts about how they handled the witchcraft issue and in 1711 they passed a bill exonerating those executed as witches, showing crowds can course correct if need be.

The French Revolution (1789-1794) demonstrated “the people” are wise in ways still being talked about today. It is a textbook example of how a potpourri of partisans, working steadily and with firm determination, can spice up everyday existence and provide world-class entertainment to those it purports to represent.

To oust the aristocracy and get rid of anyone accused of being an aristocrat, the peasants got together and using an innovative, state-of-the-art, head-removing device, beheaded tens of thousands of Frenchmen, Frenchwomen, and French children. For good measure, the architect of the revolution’s reign of terror, the radical Jacobin Maximilien Robespierre, also received a razor cut. But guillotining proved an insufficient means for the downtrodden to attain their ends so public beatings, firing squads, and weighting victims and tossing them from boats were added to the mix. A good time was had by all and the cherry on the cake was the rise of Napoleon, who turned out to be a more ruthless despot that Louis XVI, the king the people had deposed.

One of the single worst occurrences of racial violence in America’s history happened in 1921 when the Greenwood district of Tulsa (popularly known as “America’s Black Wall Street”) was burned to the ground in two days by hordes of white residents.

The incident that touched the riot off was an accusation that a young African-American shoe-shiner had assaulted a white female elevator operator. The alleged offender was arrested and taken to jail. But everyone knew black people liked being incarcerated because they are treated like royalty in prison. If justice were to be done the white residents of Tulsa would have to be the ones to do it.

Throngs of white folks made their way to where the perpetrator was being held and carefully argued the pros and cons of what they thought they should do about the matter. The conclusion they arrived at was totally brilliant: destroy one of the most successful black communities in America. And destroy they did, leaving scores of black people dead, more than 1,400 homes and businesses burned, and nearly 10,000 people homeless.

Shortly after the carnage there was a brief official inquiry, but documents related to the affair vanished soon thereafter. The Tulsa race massacre never received widespread attention and for many decades was not included in the history books used to teach Oklahoma’s schoolchildren. More evidence of the wisdom of the crowd, in this case a crowd of racist politicians, bureaucrats, and educators.

In recent times, on January 6, 2021, an assemblage of patriots invaded the US Capitol to stop ratification procedures naming Joe Biden as president. Earlier in the day, on the Ellipse in Washington DC, soon-to-be ex-president Donald Trump told the crowd collected to hear him “You can never take our country back with weakness.” Struck by the sagacity of that remark, and its clear implication that pusillanimity among the people can undercut truth, justice, and the American way, the multitude marched to the Capitol where outside its hallowed halls its members engaged in Socratic dialogue about best steps to take going forward. The steps they chose were the ones leading up to the entrance of the Capitol, which they climbed with deep conviction in the rightness of their cause. They then smashed their way through windows and doors and entered our nation’s temple of democracy.

Once inside, these icons of valor and courage lined up in an orderly manner and, with great veneration for our nation’s legislature, proceeded to trash the place. For good measure, after paying respect to the Speaker of the House by rifling through her files and filching laptops from her office, some of the group defecated on the Capitol floor as they exited the edifice. Such extraordinary wisdom, followed by such impressive action, has rarely been seen from such a sizable group of flag-waving merrymakers and if substantial numbers of this cohort are convicted for the breaking and entering crimes they have been accused of, it may be a long time before we see such collective genius on the national stage again.