I’ve been troubled by inability to make sense of the mass of American humanity’s disproportionate reactions to both the Littleton school massacre and the Makah whale hunt. 
  While the events are not similar, mass reaction to them is. 
  Imagine a flock of sheep grazing placidly with no disturbance or distraction. They are in a loose association, most more or less in one place, heads down, going about the business of making a living. 
  Although there are individuals and small groups apart from the body of the flock, perhaps going different directions as they graze, they are nonetheless a cohesive unit of beings. Their general direction is the same for all in spite of the flock’s fragmentation. 
  Minor squabbles erupt occasionally. One sheep bumps another and the aggrieved party butts the offender. The dispute plays itself out with none but those closest being aware of it. 
  Occasionally some unfamiliar thing——a noise, a smell, a movement——spooks one or a few sheep and their startled reaction infects the entire flock in an instant. The sheep act as one panicked being, bunching tightly and running blindly in whatever direction they happen to be pointed. 
  No individual sheep has made a conscious decision to stampede, but they all do it without consideration of whether they are reacting to a real threat to their collective well being. 
  The same thing happens to people in crowded theaters. The smell of smoke or a flicker of light induces panic and people crush each other to death in the stampede for the exits. All could have walked out of the theater in a couple of minutes if they had acted rationally. 
  My imaginary sheep, the crowd in the theater, and the American people in their extreme over-reaction to the deaths of 13 people and one whale have something in common: 

hys·ter·i·a  n. 1. A neurosis characterized by...mental and behavioral aberrations. 2. Excessive or uncontrollable emotion, such as fear or panic.  

  The urge to find ways to prevent crimes such as the one in Littleton is rational. What is not rational is the headlong rush to do something, to do anything, without considering whether the proposed actions are those that might have some bearing on the problem to be solved. 
  Few, if any, of the proposals that have erupted in the wake of Littleton will do anything to prevent future crimes of that sort, but more laws will be passed and people will feel that they have done something constructive. 
  I can understand opposition to killing whales. Although rational arguments are few, they deserve consideration. 
  Fear that the killing of one whale will reopen the door to commercial slaughter is a rational one. Already whaling interests are using the Makah’s kill to bolster their position. 
  Anti-Makah sentiment goes far beyond rational argument. The reaction is out of proportion to the stimulus. If people were so strongly committed to preventing the deaths of whales, they’d fight to outlaw large vessels to prevent ships running over them. 
  What happened after Littleton, and what is happening in response to the whale kill, is not much different from the flock’s panicked over-reaction to a minor disturbance. 
  When a man in his uncontrolled rage advocates killing Makah, he is guilty in his heart of genocide. When a woman suggests we take the Indians’ land away in retaliation for the hunt, she displays more than ignorance of history. 
  I think I know now what panicked the sheep. 
  A maudlin ad on a local radio station bemoans the “murder” of the whale and asks how much more of such horror our children will be exposed to. 
  Exposed to? Of course! Television! Both the Littleton massacre and the whale kill were broadcast unedited on TV! 
  While the bark of a coyote may panic a flock of sheep, it’s the immediacy of television that can induce hysteria in flocks of people.