If you've ever seen a flock of birds or a school of fish, then you know what it looks like to have a total lack of independence; just like the teenaged and young adult population of our country, the birds and fish don't think for themselves.
Young people have been trained to go with the flow and just believe what others want you to believe. For example, the Jena 6. A group of black teens assaulted a white kid until he fell uncouncious. Even after he was uncouncious, they continued to kick and stomp on him. Of course, the winds of fury kick up, and before you know it, Al Sharpton, and all of his followers, cry racism because these kids are being charged.
Now, I have heard several people stand up against this knee-jerk response that has bee conditioned over the years, but the overwhelming majority of people go right along with Sharpton, not even thinking about it. They've been conditioned to function that way.
Even on this website, there are many examples of this. I right a blog about week ago, about how political correctness has gotten out of hand. Almost all the comments agreed with me, but as soon as I wrote another blog that was deemed politically incorrect, I got jumped on. We've been conditioned to oppose political correctness in theory, but in practice, we all too often support it.
So, who does the training? The mass media has a big part to play in this, as they portray a story the way they want to hear it. There's not immediately anything wrong with a bias, because it is impossible to escape them, we all have them. It's when they portray their view as being impartial and 100% unbiased that we get problems.
Other sources of societal training are teachers, peers, and parents. Teachers normally don't do too much, but they can influence the way their students think, mostly through comments.
Peer pressure is a huge problem. Fellow students can exert enormous control over each other, through manipulation, intimidation, and ridicule. Often, we don't even realize that they are doing it.
Parents have the natural role of rearing their children and shaping who they are. It can get out of hand, though, when parents allow their kids almost no amount of autonomy. In the wrong hands, parental influence is extremely dangerous.
Here we come to the point: whether it is societal issues, politics, or the latest fashion trends, Americans have been conditioned to not think for themselves. It is always, 'whatever everyone else is doing'. If people would just stop taking in what society force-feeds them, and start to think for themselves, our great melting pot of a democracy would be much better off.
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Almost all affluent countries have the same problem. Its something that has always been around and probably always will be around. People, just like animals, find safety in numbers. Everyone just wants to be normal, but most have differen't ideas of normal.
"Your just like everyone else becasue your different"
Can think of what band its from but it makes perfect sense. Yeah everyone want s to be different which in the end makes everyone the same.
Sorry this comment was so scatter-minded. This was a great blog.
"The mass media has a big part to play in this, as they portray a story the way they want to hear it. "
Would you be offended if I speculated that you are merely repeating things that other people told you to think in regard to this, and denied you the recognition you deserve for reaching the same conclusion as others through your own contemplation and analysis? Because I've heard and read this so many times I've lost count, does that mean you can't think for yourself and merely follow other peoples orders to think this?
I'd hazard a guess that this is a conclusion that you reached through your own observation and contemplation, which was further validated by thoughtful examination and analysis of the facts, and other peoples views and findings. I wouldn't be so arrogant or condescending as to suggest that you are just thinking what you are told to think, without establishing a frame of reference first through examination of your writing or other evidence pertinent to establishing an opinion of whether or not you are thinking critically as opposed to blindly accepting another persons opinion. Because that kind of thing is fighting words mister ;)
For the record, I gave this post a 5, because I don't believe that you are simply saying what other people told you to think. Despite the fact that I've reached the same conclusion myself, as have countless others, I realise that it is possible that more than one person can reach the same logical conclusion without having to be told to think that way :)
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I am the people my mother warned me about.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tuffgong
I agree, people can reach the same conclusion independently. However, when people reach the same conclusion in droves, it usually means that they are not really thinking for themselves.
Thanks for the compliment, I think.
I'd tend to agree. I wrote my thesis on 'the aggressive use of persuaive technique in youth sector advertising', it was called 'Manufacturing the Consumer', it dealt with conditioning of children into consumers through invasive advertising techniques. So I've read a lot about different aspects of mind control, propaganda and persuasion. So the concept of swaying mass opinion and manipulating cognitive response in hordes is something I don't under-estimate.
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I am the people my mother warned me about.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tuffgong
I agree that some teachers influence the way their students think because when I took Typography at my college and when it was time for my classmates to critique one of my projects, nobody said anything wrong with my work, yet when I questioned someone else's work, they jumped on me. Furthermore, that's why I used to not like when people critiqued my work.
That's very common. Too many students treat open crits like popularity competitions, they'd rather not upset anybody with honest criticism, than actually crit the work properly. They don't even realise that by not giving an honest crit, while they may be saving the persons feelings, they are actually doing that person a disservice. This is because, if they present sloppy typography in a professional setting, they will often be told in no uncertain terms that it's not cutting it.
I actually suggested anonymous crit forms that students should fill out for their classmates work in our typography class, which would mean that everybody gets an honest, if sometimes painful, evaluation of their work from the entire class. This method would have allowed honest criticism without the personal grudge factor.
The idea was rejected, so instead, it was left to three of us in the class giving honest criticism and the rest sulking to various degrees and treating crits more like a support group for people who produce sloppy typography but don't want to be corrected. For every honest crit, there was always four or five people contradicting with such amazing appraisals as 'Well, I don't care what they say, I really like it". Which was usually followed by one of our lecturers confirming our criticism and the half of the others going into a sulk, with the other half just saying nothing at all, agreeing with us outside of class, but not having the fortitude to support it in class in case they lost any popularity.
Rather than seeing the value in the criticism, they instead just decided that niether the lecturers nor those providing honest crits knew what we were talking about. Something they still maintained when they got shit results. Crits are good, if done honestly, because they help you get used to criticism, something which is essential in the work place if you are involved in graphic design, art direction or whatever. People who want to work in the commercial arts, but can't take criticism will lose clients, lose jobs and would be better off pissing off and becoming fine artists, then they can sulk all they want.
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I am the people my mother warned me about.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tuffgong
"The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking."
- AA Milne
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"I always knew I wanted to be somebody. I guess I should have been more specific."
~Unknown
We really are just sheep sometimes. The only diffrence seems to be the flock and sherpard the sheep belong to. I have more to say but I am out of time.
Great post thanks
all truths are easy to understand once discovered; the point is to discover them ~galileo
All of us are "grouping up" on this one issue. As, you talk about how nothing is original, and people are just agreeing with everyone else, is it not ironic that none of you are disagreeing, that none of you are questioning anything said by some random blogger named Politae. And true Tuffgoing, you did reach this conclusion all by yourself(you're a big boy now), are you going to tell me that the way you came tot his realization was not shown to you or mentioned or in someway not completely your own. Have you ever wondered, that if we are so much like sheep, and noone is their own person, and all this blah blah blah that we here over and over again is so true, then why is man still progressing. When was the last time sheep progressed. And, have you not thought, that since the world population has reached a record spike in growth recently, that this problem has always been there, and has itself not increased as an issue percentage wise, but only number wise. More people period equals more people doing everything. Thats like saying oh my goodness people are creating so much more natural waste recently, and we should worry about it. Thats a ridiculous statement. Yes, there is more natural waste, but thats only because more people are alive now. So, though I hate to rain a good parade, I did. And, i expect that as rain often rouses sheep up and makes them run about in agitation, I will have many angry posts on this comment, which would be nice, because it proves I think like me not you.
Peace!
"And true Tuffgoing, you did reach this conclusion all by yourself(you're a big boy now), are you going to tell me that the way you came tot his realization was not shown to you or mentioned or in someway not completely your own. "
Actually the comment you are refering to was in inpired by a comment Politae posted in regard to my Agnosticism on another blog, where Politae told me that I was not thinking for mtself and merely parrotting what other people tell me to think indiscriminately. You weren't to know that. But that aside, if you actually read a little more carefully you would have noticed these bits:
"thoughtful examination and analysis of the facts, and other peoples views and findings."
"establishing an opinion of whether or not you are thinking critically as opposed to blindly accepting another persons opinion."
When I said I reached this conslusion by myself, that was as a result of weighing up information and facts compiled by other people thinking in a similiar critical manner and thinking critically about what I was examining. I was hardly claiming that I sit on my own isolated and ignorant of everybody elses ideas and come up with my own from thin air, that's called imagining, or at best contemplation. But to imagine and contemplate alone, without examining competing ideas and the contemplations of others would not really be thinking for yourself, it would be thinking BY yourself.
When you think for yourself, you question anything that is presented to you in a critical manner, rather that just saying 'yeah I agree with that' because a Liberal said it, or a Conservative said it, or a priest said it, or a holy book said it.
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"Have you ever wondered, that if we are so much like sheep, and noone is their own person, and all this blah blah blah........ "
That was my point. I agree with the sentiment of this post, because it is encouraging critical thinking as opposed to blind allegiance. It is telling people to question their thinking and to make sure that they don't just like the team that espouses the idea, but to makes sure that the individual has critically evaluated it themselves
"And, i expect that as rain often rouses sheep up and makes them run about in agitation"
Does it? I've never seen this. My friend has a small sheep farm down country and they never seem all that bothered by rain to me. Maybe you over-estimate the effect of rain on sheep.
"I will have many angry posts on this comment, which would be nice, because it proves I think like me not you."
I'm not angry, I agree with the gist of what you are saying, so I can overlook the condescending tone and the 'big boy now' bit. I just think you are deliberately reading what you want and being a little pedantic in an effort to let us know that you're the 'big boy', not me. But there's room for plenty of 'big boys' here, just don't walk around thinking that you're bigger than everybody else, coz there's some much bigger older boys around here who'd take both of us down to Chinatown in a few sentences.
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I am the people my mother warned me about.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tuffgong
hey man thanks for the tips, and the well put together analysis of my post. And I will work on being less pedantic.
Just one more tip, it's a good idea to use the reply button when replying to people's comments, it will save you a lot of hassle from people who think you're talking to them when you're not. That is assuming that you were replying to me ;)
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I am the people my mother warned me about.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tuffgong