Group-Think

Political and religious belief systems are created to provide the believer some shelter from the fear and confusion of the world around them. You'll soon realize it's a market place of ideas out there if you happen to be shopping for one or more of them. What a comforting feeling it is when you find other people who's belief systems are similar to your own. It makes you feel like you're not alone and it gives a sense of credibility to your own beliefs. Perhaps this is one component of the creation of orthodox world views, or group-think. The problem I see with this is that once a particular belief system is accepted in its entirety, that is the end of critical thinking for that person. They now believe what they want to believe and begin gathering evidence that supports their preconceived notions and ignore evidence that contradicts it.

If you are beginning to get the impression that the author fancies himself to be immune to the afore-mentioned phenomenon, I'm not fooling myself. I believe lots of things. However, I make great efforts to resist the social pressures suggesting (or demanding) I conform my beliefs to what I refer to as "store bought" or "pre-fabricated" ideas.

The source of this particular rant is my daily exposure to the opinions of others. Opinions which, in my opinion, find their origins in one form of group-think or another. To engage such people in conversation, I would find it difficult to resist the temptation to question the fundamental assumptions lying at the foundations of their belief system. This tends to make people extremely uncomfortable, especially if they have never taken the time or effort to ask these questions themselves. These are conversations that usually end up with some form of drama, therefore I avoid them with my everyday acquaintances.

Most people are unwilling to accompany me down into the black hole that I call my mind, and one could hardly blame them. The society we live in provides an unlimited variety of distractions all subconsciously designed to enable us to ignore the big questions. The biggest of which, in my mind, is the question "WHY?".