Who Killed Creativity?: ...And How Do We Get It Back?

Chapter 8: And they lived happily ever after … or did they?

Putting creativity on trial for the final twist in the plot

Just a few months before the revolutionary events in Egypt our family wandered through Cairo’s Tahrir Square as carefree tourists. We attracted the usual attention and interest with our blond hair and the corresponding expectation of easy foreign money, and were frequently pressed to buy copy watches and fake artefacts, but nothing out of the ordinary for a typical travel experience, and we generally felt pretty safe. Not long after that, a tidal wave of reform swept through the Middle East. Images of Tahrir Square under siege were beamed around the world, and what had so recently been a peaceful open market became a barricaded battleground. After a brief period of euphoria, the same darkness that had dwelt in the country before the revolution crept back in under the new powers.

At the height of the uprising, which had successfully ended Mubarak’s 30-year reign of power, blonde veteran CBS reporter Lara Logan was on location in the thick of the celebrations at Tahrir Square. With history in the making and the world watching, she reported that she felt safe. Shortly afterwards, though, the mood around her turned hostile, and a 200-strong mob turned on Lara and brutally attacked and sexually assaulted her.1

The crowd mentality is dangerous. Social psychologist Sam Keen2 believes that mob killers universally use a language of prejudice and stereotypes to tap ...