It's because mob psychology chooses targets based on visible availability. A Google employee boarding a special bus is visible - literally - in a way that his landlord is not. The reason mob psychology behaves that way in turn is because the coordination mechanisms used are very basic; thus, while individual members of the mob may be as intelligent as you or I, the mob as a collective entity necessarily behaves as though its intelligence were much more limited.
What to do about it?
At an individual level, if you're being targeted, say if you're on the receiving end of hostility from your neighbors, try talking to them, present yourself as a human being rather than a target. Read up on nonviolent communication. Explain what the real problem is.
At a collective level, fight fire with fire. Make the correct targets more visible. Find out the names, addresses and faces of individual landowners who have been primarily responsible for the political corruption. Publish them. Make them targets.
Or else get out of San Francisco. Seriously, tech workers have more intrinsic mobility than nearly anyone else does. Google could just decide to move its operations to a friendlier city tomorrow, and its net cost for doing so would be negative. If your startup has to be in San Francisco for the moment while you're raising capital, plan on getting out as soon as you have done so.
But don't move to San Francisco unless you are willing to get into the political fight; as things currently stand, that's like stepping into a boxing ring and then standing there with your eyes closed. You're just setting yourself up as a target.
Comments
It's because mob psychology chooses targets based on visible availability. A Google employee boarding a special bus is visible - literally - in a way that his landlord is not. The reason mob psychology behaves that way in turn is because the coordination mechanisms used are very basic; thus, while individual members of the mob may be as intelligent as you or I, the mob as a collective entity necessarily behaves as though its intelligence were much more limited.
What to do about it?
At an individual level, if you're being targeted, say if you're on the receiving end of hostility from your neighbors, try talking to them, present yourself as a human being rather than a target. Read up on nonviolent communication. Explain what the real problem is.
At a collective level, fight fire with fire. Make the correct targets more visible. Find out the names, addresses and faces of individual landowners who have been primarily responsible for the political corruption. Publish them. Make them targets.
Or else get out of San Francisco. Seriously, tech workers have more intrinsic mobility than nearly anyone else does. Google could just decide to move its operations to a friendlier city tomorrow, and its net cost for doing so would be negative. If your startup has to be in San Francisco for the moment while you're raising capital, plan on getting out as soon as you have done so.
But don't move to San Francisco unless you are willing to get into the political fight; as things currently stand, that's like stepping into a boxing ring and then standing there with your eyes closed. You're just setting yourself up as a target.