Nurturing independent thought can help us overcome dangerous sheeple behaviour and groupthink.
We have all been in situations where it is easier to follow the crowd than to go against it. We change our mind and succumb to group pressure just by being told that most people think about an issue in a certain way. By unconsciously internalising the opinions, feelings and moods of others, we can end up thinking these ideas are our own.
Even though we treasure our individuality and like to imagine that we are in control of our lives, we are hardwired to imitate others and follow the herd. And when stressful situations arise, we are even more likely to acquiesce to other people’s suggestions without taking much of a critical stand. Worryingly, our brains maintain the illusion that whatever we’re doing is based on our independent judgement.
Herd mentality or “sheeple” behaviour can be found everywhere from the financial sector to outbursts of mob violence, political movements, religious gatherings, sporting events, riots, strikes and even consumer preferences such as fashion trends. In each of these instances, individuals adopt opinions based on what other people say and do without considering the evidence for themselves.
Many threatening situations – real or imaginary – can provoke sheeple behaviour. These are not just circumstances of physical danger, but also the fear of being different, uncertain or the odd one out. For example, people will make irrational or non-optimal decisions and behave in a herd-like fashion when motivated by the desire to fit in, which can result in groupthink.
The smart intelligent and mindful people know deep-well, that following the crowd is as dangerous an act as anything…
As for me — I believe that it is best to go paragliding off any mountain top, than following the crowd, and even worse mixing it up with the idiots that exist within every crowd. So if the sheeple go in one direction — be sure to find me going in the opposite.
The very stink of shitte is the signature of the other parts of the herd mentality that I cannot associate with. The great unwashed, the peasants and their unwavering sympathy for their racist, anti-semitic, homophobic, idiotic, and stupefying lack of intelligence — smells worse than shit inside their panties. Fear and the resulting emissions define those idiots who let loose their idiocy — when secure in the midst of a clinical experience of a crowd ready to riot against anyone who might call their BS.
Tough job for whistleblowers, but there are some opportunities to come together because without herd instinct, our ancestors might not have banded together to become tribals after first becoming families bend on cooperation in order to fight off animals, hunt & bring down the woolly mammoth, or help each other collect food, trade and engage in agriculture.
And while there are many benefits to be gained by living and working cooperatively in large groups — sheeple behaviour also makes us easily susceptible to manipulation. This is particularly the case in the context of leadership, where neo-authoritarian leaders exploit the natural instinct of people’s herd mentality, in order to rise to power.
The dark side of sheeple behaviour manifests when individual judgment and opinion-forming processes shut down. Essentially, a process of social contagion takes place, meaning a tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize expressions, words, postures and movements with other people, which contributes to behavioral convergence, and that’s how you see the rise of NAZI parties, Fascism, Anti-Semitism, and all other such ideologies of hate, xenophobia, and fear of those who are blessed with higher quotidients of natural intelligence, system processing brains, and pattern recognition.
After all it only takes 5 percent of what scientists call “informed individuals” to influence the direction of a crowd, mobilizing the other 95 percent, to follow without even realizing it.
Leaders including Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini and their contemporaries such as Brazil’s, San Salvador, and Argentine leaders, Vietnam’s generals, China’s Xi JiPing and the Politburo, as well as other oligarchs like Putin, and even the bloody Generals of Thailand, Myanmar, and Turkey’s Erdogan, as well as the Ayatollahs of Iran, and the other royal families of the Persian Gulf — have all exploited this “sheeple” herd behavior, as manifest amongst their native populations.
Today, we can clearly see how Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Republican Guards of Iran are all terribly manipulating and indoctrinating the gullible people around the World, and their own captive populations with ideological & religious doctrine, and their internal and external disturbing propaganda material to rationalize their disastrous terrorism as a just & humanitarian war, and thus the sheeple perceive Israel’s natural reflex of IDF responses, as a genocide against the Palestinian people.
This “sheeple programming” is directed straight in our brains, and it explains why otherwise sane and sensible people, can reject common sense. It should therefore come as no surprise that in times of uncertainty, we will always look to strong leaders to guide our behaviour.
But how can we stop regressing into herd mentality?
You become thoughtful, discerning and stoic.
Accepting each tragedy and each victory as one and the same, fully knowing that you will be assaulted with both fairly regularly…
No matter what…
Maybe, You got a call about the airplane crash where your wife and unborn son are amongst the disappeared, charred and disintegrated in an inimical foreign land.
You hear but do not believe anything about this accident.
You simply stare into the distant horizon fully uncomprehending and yet accepting that there is No Justice in this world.
Impossible to even comprehend — yet an all too common human experience to lose those that you love.
Memories come rushing back: https://drpanochurchill.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=58716&action=edit
Or maybe you just learned your bank accounts have been cleaned out. Stolen by good banker/wankers and cashier girls that are acting like lusty sluts, boobsy whores, and dirty thieves, because you didn’t fvck them often enough, hard enough, sodomized enough…
You get the idea, about the insatiable quiet bank tellers letting their freak out.
Or perhaps you get hit with a milder case of misfortune, testing your capacity for disbelief:
Such as when You saw something on your spouse’s mobile phone, that you can never unsee.
It’s news like this that will hurt you good and deep, and maybe even split you in two, like a fire log ready to be thrown into the fireplace to warm up your enemies.
Horrific events like this:
The loss of a spouse.
The loss of a child.
A betrayal.
A terminal medical diagnosis.
All of it is unthinkable and yet it is also totally an everyday type of material.
I am certain that it happens to all of us…
Seneca always said: “Never forget fortune’s habit of behaving exactly as she pleases.”
Usually its God trying to test what kind of material you are made of…
Yes,
Or No.
Whatever direction — life comes at you fast and furious.
It arrives in waves, seemingly ready to run you over at any moment and drown you in the undertow.
Life comes at you unmercifully.
It does “come” when you least expect it.
It arrives unbidden when you can least afford it.
It’s not fair.
Its not even.
It’s not just.
But you know that it’s a fact.
And you know what else is a fact?
Your son’s school, your children’s soccer practice, your mountainous bills.
The sun rising tomorrow.
The fact that your tomorrow’s all bring their own sets of practical logistics, problems, and obligations.
Please do not take it personal, because, it’s not about whether these things hurt you or not.
Surely, yes — they do.
But it’s about whether you can keep on going — or whether you can do it with a broken heart…
Can you wake up and go out the House and drive to work after all these things have happened ?
Can you take care of your people ?
Can you pay all of their just wages ?
Can you go home after your work is done ?
Can you do the right thing ?
Life doesn’t go easy on any of us.
It splits us in two…
And yet, the remaining half will have to do.
Because that’s the job.
Because people are counting on us.
Because that’s how it goes… and always has gone.
And because that’s the Human condition and we best get used to it, and live a Free and Independent as we can.
But in the mean time, there is a lot you can do.
Start by these three things:
Probe your personal beliefs
Fostering independent thought and reflection can reduce the risk of sheeple behaviour. We need to ask questions, consider our options and educate ourselves in order to make well-informed decisions, even if that means running the risk of looking foolish.
Just because everyone else is making a quick decision doesn’t mean that they know best. It will always be the easier option to follow the herd rather than make independent judgements. Thus, when making a choice, we should examine the biases we may have and question their sources.
Evaluate and justify your options
Realising the need to justify our choices will make us less likely to blindly mimic other people. It will prevent us from living in an echo chamber and accepting ideas without further scrutiny. It is our task to evaluate our personal beliefs when they contradict what others are doing. We should welcome different opinions, but at the same time try to understand why they are so different.
Large numbers of people can be wrong
Whatever position we take, there will always be much (conscious and unconscious) pressure to belong to a group. Hardwired as we are to blend in, it will be difficult to oppose the opinion of the majority. We will always have to struggle with the belief, irrational as it may be, that large numbers of people cannot be wrong.
It is our challenge, however, to oppose this idea. We should never assume that something is right simply because the majority of people agree on it. Instead, we should ask ourselves whether the choices that we make are really our choices, or whether we have fallen into a sheeple pattern.
Reflect and delay taking action
We also need to be aware of the degree to which stress affects our decision-making capabilities. Reflective decision-making is more important than ever when we feel pressured to act quickly. It is wise to delay taking action until we have assessed the situation and are fully aware of what’s happening.
Whenever we feel the pull of sheeple behaviour, we should remind ourselves that it is our capacity for both independent and dependent thought that has made humankind so successful and allowed our species to progress. It has helped us learn new things, as well as discover, develop and advance ideas.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that we should ignore our evolutionary heritage. After all, a society of people all working off completely different scripts – with no common themes – would be dysfunctional. Humans are socially wired, meaning that we are looking for common ground when we get together as a group. Our brains will therefore always rely on a certain degree of groupthink.
At the same time, we should not forget that stimulating independent thought is the only way to reduce the risk of collective madness. It is thus our challenge to distinguish between the wisdom and the madness of crowds.
business is very similar to any personal relationships you have in life. They follow a lot of the same rules if you want them to be successful.
Whether you’re working on the next Amazon, courting someone new or trying to build a relationship with your child, you need to be innovative.
Innovation is all about assessing a situation; see what’s working and what’s not, and sometimes you need an outsider’s view to see the problem areas. Most importantly, innovation comes from listening, and really hearing out your clients and your loved ones.
These are important lessons I’ve learned while growing my own business and that’s why I thought it would be great to bring them to you.
how you can develop an innovative mindset; what you need to focus on, and not focus on, to see your business and relationships move forward.
If you’re not innovating, you’re standing still. When you stand still, the world is leaving you behind.
Innovation isn’t about being better than your competition, or reacting to what what’s happening around you, innovation happens before you need to react.
Now let us all learn how you can be more innovative in all areas of your life by not being a sheeple and by not following any kind of herd.
Just be yourself, be different, be disruptive, and be fvckin amazing.
Yours,
Dr Churchill
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