The Flames of Woodstock: Factors of the Rapes and Riots
... broiling temperature of 40 degrees, and the only available water was that from the filthy sinks or that being sold by the festival promoters for four dollars a bottle. In addition to the wrath of Mother Nature, the sanitary conditions were nothing shot of revolting. Mud coated the fields, not due to rain but to water leaking from the sinks and toilets. The sewage and garbage on the ground made the air pungent and the mud toxic by the endof the first day, making the living conditions for the young people barely livable indeed. In addition, the cramped sleeping quarters where people were to camp their tents seemed almost unnecessary, as many of the individuals partying there that weekend would not be sleeping much due to the fact that the festival promoters were providing all night raves for those people who wanted to experience the festival nonstop. And when these young people were not surviving these conditions, several of them were voluntarily heading towards the mosh pit where people seemed to go only to fight. These moshing muscle-heads bellowed and flailed and the air was frequently filled with flying bottles, rocks, dead batteries and various other debris – suggesting nothing so much as the history of human evolution in reverse. These fans were ridiculously clueless about the laws of self-preservation, skimping out on the sunscreen and earplugs and instead accepting lethal drugs from strangers. The drugs were overflowing at Woodstock, and in turn they had an extremely negative psychological effect on the would-be rioters. Marijuana, cocaine, heroin, mushrooms, Special K, nitrous, ecstasy and alcohol were among the more common known drugs that were readily available to the concert goers. However, this year’s Woodstock saw the white powder take over marijuana as the drug of the festival, and the effects took their toll. Even the mildest of drugs have a way of distorting one’s reality and as they increase in strength and risk they can distort one’s perception even more. Add to this drug infested mob a band lineup that was intent on creating a volatile, young white male-friendly environment, and the result was a riled up crowd that was impossible to calm down. The programming was not about anything except money and getting a massive group of people revved up to a fever pitch. In addition, some of the bands themselves also share the responsibility with the promoters for egging their fans on. As Simmel states, ‘in every mass there are individuals whose temper leans toward the extreme development of whatever mood is stimulated, and that these individuals, because at the moment they are strongest and most empathetic, pull the mass in the direction of their own mood.’ This desire of various band members to incite their crowd of fans and lift them to a state of euphoric glee and brave resistance of any form of structure and authority is a surefire method of instigating some form of violent mob reactions. These factors had a relentless effect on encouraging these youth to engage in various forms of sexual harassment throughout the festival and to riot at the end of it. Yet, there was a much larger factor at play. Sociologist Simmel relates this to the importance of numbers in determining group behaviour. There were an estimated 250,000 people who attended, and from this large group of people of various backgrounds and interests, many different forms of Woodstock ’99 developed. One form was taken in by the ravers who danced all night long under the starry summer sky; another involved those grouped in the relatively mellow West stage area. The most popular form that Woodstock took, though, was zealously embraced by the first time festival going youth who sucked down clouds of pot smoke and humped away happily in their crowded and lumpy tents. According to Simmel, behaviour of the individual is dependent upon the size of the group they are participating in. His claim is that when a person is in a large group, his behaviour in fact becomes fused within a collective ideal, thus encouraging him to engage in actions that would, under normal circumstances, be uncustomary. He states that ‘there is a heightened impulsiveness and elimination of moral restraint which are shown by the individual in a crowd and which lead to mass crimes where even legal responsibility becomes a matter of dispute. The group interest, whether it is true or ostensible, entitles, or even obliges, the individual to commit acts for which, as an individual, he does not care to be responsible.’ That is, as a group member, the individual is anonymous, whereas if the individual had to answer for his acts personally, it would most probably be embarrassing for him. The individual can feel protected and concealed by the group whose interests, at least formally, he believes himself to represent; therefore, he commits these acts with the best of conscience. As a result, this group membership can entail the lowering of the practical personality. Simmel’s premise is that ‘large masses can always be animated and guided only by simple ideas. That is, what is common to many must be accessible even to the lowest and most primitive among them. The group can never meet on complex and highly developed ideas and impulses but only on those that are relatively simple and generally human. These simple ideas, therefore, must always have the effect of being very one-sided, ruthless and radical.’ This is the essence behind the Woodstock riots. These three days saw a quarter of a million young people growing cranky over being sold secondhand ‘60’s pipe dreams at first class rip-off prices, and as the festival dragged on, they behaved as they felt they were being treated – like consumptive animals – and were intent on getting their money’s worth. And these subjugations were imposed upon both the common individual as well as the rich, well to-do individuals. No one was exempt from the harsh commercialism that the promoter’s exacted upon the festival’s audience. As a result, ‘the fusion of these masses under one common feeling, in which all specificity and reserve of the personality are suspended, is fundamentally radical and hostile to mediation and consideration. It would lead to nothing but impasses and destructions if it did not usually end before in inner exhaustions and repercussions that are the consequences of the one sided exaggeration.’ When the concert ended, several hundred kids went maniacal, looting vendor tents and smashing ATM machines, as well as toppling Porta Potties and giant speaker towers. Festival security, such as it was, collapsed in the face of this sudden war zone situation. In essence, the masses feel that they have little...