The concept of herd mentality applies to concert venues as well as movie theatres. For the purposes of this rant, the focus will be on the movie theatre.

You are arriving early and you have your popcorn and soda in your hand. The auditorium is empty so you have a choice of any seat in the house. You plop down and are thankful for the cool darkness and some peace and quiet. It is you, snacks, and the sights and sounds of a movie. Three minutes prior to the movie starting, three people walk in behind you. They are of course talking at the top of their lungs. You take a deep breath knowing, naively, that you will have some space around you. A barrier between your world and that of the giggling moron spawn that just walked in. But wait. Oh hell no. They walk right past you, take a hard left, and proceed to sit down in the row right in front of you. They are within arms reach for fuck’s sake! How can they walk into a theatre empty of all but one human and make the command decision that the place where they should sit is directly in front of that lone human? Are they looking for some sort of comfort? A sense of belonging? Were they taught this horrible behavior at home? Some sort of homeschooling elective? Herd mentality at its finest. The human form right in front of you is, of course, wearing the requisite “it’s my ball cap!” and of course the brim is pointing upward in typical Cooter style. Leaning back you realize that this oily, filthy, sweat-stained brim is right in your direct line of sight of the screen. The two people on the other side of Cooter want to chat with each other so they lean forward, jibber jabber, laugh and laugh, and proceed to do the same thing for the next 117 minutes. How many people are now in the theatre? Nine. All sitting in a little fuck cluster like a group of ducklings trying to get warm. You think of moving but you have a bad feeling that the entire Clampett clan will move with you. Herd mentality at all costs.