Rempit

While trawling through the local forums today, I came across this piece on mob mentality specifically regarding Mat Rempits. Thought it was well written by a Roland San and hope you find it interesting



"Mat Rempit is simply a label.

It serves to define a group of people, a sub-culture, and that is all it does.

Ultimately they are a mob. Mobs can be brought together by a common standard or characteristic, and here it is the motorcycle. Why? Because a bike allows cheap thrills for a cheap price. Ideal.

Now, the problem with mobs is that once they reach a critical population, say twenty of them riding around, each individual becomes anonymous. They become the group. They lose individual identity, and gain the identity of the group. And as a group, they feel they project more power, and therefore they lose the fear of repercussion. There is no consequence, and this power quickly goes to their heads. Law and reason no longer prevail, as they have large enough numbers to intimidate and allow them to do as they please. They feel that the group allows them to be more that they can be, and they display this by performing stunts or racing. They feel they are part of something, a sub-culture where they are accepted, where they are glorified. You read in the papers that they race for the cash, women and glory. Their motivation is to have something, because in the real world, they most likely have nothing.

Now, look back at the punk movement. It was a response to the British government's hold on the social order of things, and the traditional way life was led. It defied authority and order to give a voice to those who were disillusioned.

There's no difference with that and today's Rempit culture. They don't exactly lead the brightest of lives, and have to find escape in other ways. They're rebelling against the social order here, and against the limitations placed upon them.

There's more to this than illegal racing. It goes right down to what's wrong with today's society, and the solution lies there, not with intergrating them or outlawing them."