Actually, we haven't. We're just more sophisticated about it. Instead of dragging people suspected of running afoul of civil sensibilities from their homes and beating them to death, or tarring and feathering them, or riding them out of town on a rail, we take to Twitter and join the mob.
Of course, I'm talking about the death of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe and his killing at the hands of a middle-aged dentist from Minnesota named Walter Palmer.
First off, it is obvious that what Palmer did was despicable. In case you missed it, he paid more than $50,000 to travel to Zimbabwe to kill a lion, and his guides made sure that happened, luring Cecil into his sights. The 13-year-old lion was a tourist draw at Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park and was being studied by wildlife conservationists. He was described, almost universally, as "beloved."
What Palmer did was terrible, and it says a lot about a human being and his or her sense of adequacy that he would have to travel halfway around the world to kill an animal. Some people read too much Hemingway when they were young and believe that killing animals is a way to deal with their own feelings of impotence and inadequacy. (Go back and read Hemingway. The guy was pretty twisted.)
And details of Cecil's death don't help. Palmer wounded the animal with a crossbow. Cecil lived another 40 hours before the hunting party tracked him down and ended his life with a bullet — and then skinned and beheaded him.
So what Palmer did was terrible. Two of the men who arranged his "hunt" have been arrested on charges that include poaching. It is not known whether Palmer will face charges. He had previously run afoul of the law for illegally killing a black bear in Wisconsin.
A headline on CNN's website says, "U.S. dentist says he regrets role in death of Cecil the lion." Role?
OK, so the guy is a word I can't use here.
The case has become a cause celebre, which means, of course, that celebrities are piping in on social media.
And here is where mob justice comes in.
Jimmy Kimmel questioned his ability to, um, "perform" on national television and said, "They have a pill for that, it works great. Just take that and save yourself from a lifetime of being the most hated man in America who never advertised Jell-O pudding on television."
Other celebrities took to Twitter to call him "Satan" and demand that his U.S. citizenship be revoked. Sharon Osbourne, whose husband Ozzy once bit the head off a bat during a concert, went on a Twitter bender.
"I don't know how anyone could go to this man for dental services after this. He is a killer. Beware," she wrote.
"I hope that #WalterPalmer loses his home, his practice & his money. He has already lost his soul," was another Tweet.
"When he dies, I hope someone mounts his ugly ass head to the wall. #WalterPalmer is a COWARD," Osbourne wrote.
And the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals piped in.
"If, as has been reported, this dentist and his guides lured Cecil out of the park with food so as to shoot him on private property ... he needs to be extradited, charged, and, preferably, hanged," PETA chief Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement emailed to the Associated Press.
Jeez, what about ethical treatment for human beings?
An online petition demanding justice for Cecil from Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has attracted 400,000 signatures. (Good luck with that.)
It should be noted that an online petition demanding justice for Sandra Bland, a black woman who died in strange circumstances while in police custody in Waller County, Texas, has garnered a little more than 6,000 signatures. Which should be expected. People like animals a lot more than they like other people. And taking up the cause of a dead lion is a safe thing for a celebrity. You're not going to alienate any of your fans, except for those who kill animals for fun.
And it's easy to join the mob from the safety of your iPad, or iPhone. It makes it a lot easier to unleash your id. You can do it while you're stuck in traffic.
Palmer has had his life threatened. His address was posted on the Internet. He had to close his practice. At least for now, until the next shiny object distracts our fruit-fly-like national attention span, his life is destroyed.
Sure, what he did was terrible, but the mob mentality that has surrounded this case has made it worse.
Maybe what we need is to step away from the computer, put down the iPad, turn off your iPhone, and calm down a bit.
And then, once we get our wits about us, we can look into getting some pitchforks and torches.
Or a bucket of tar and a few sacks of feathers.
If you're going to participate in a mob, at least have the stones to be hands-on about it.
Mike Argento's column appears Mondays and Fridays in Living and Sundays in Viewpoints. Reach him at mike@ydr.com or 771-2046. Read more Argento columns at www.ydr.com/mike. Or follow him on Twitter at @FnMikeArgento
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