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When I’m walking along and I see a crowd of people gathering, my first impulse is probably to wonder \u201cWhat\u2019s going on here?\u201d Natural curiosity may lead me to watch the group, strain my ears to hear what\u2019s being said or walk over for a closer look. It could be an accident, it could be someone giving something away as a promotion for some product \u2014 whatever it is, the immediate conclusion I might draw is that it\u2019s worthy of attention \u2014 if not of mine then at least of someone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a tendency for people to believe that anything other people think is important must have some merit. It creates a kind of magnetism that increases as the size of the group grows. The more people that are drawn to something, the more noteworthy the thing that\u2019s attracting them seems. There\u2019s probably some deep-seated instinct at work here \u2014 some inherent behavior that\u2019s enhanced human survival, bringing people together to deal with a crisis or threat. Maybe those who responded to group cues were more likely to enjoy the advantages and protections of the group and thus passed those genes on to their progeny. Whatever the cause, it clearly happens, often unthinkingly \u2014 and while it may be a good thing in certain circumstances, it can also be a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In modern society we have been exposed to greater amounts of mass thinking because our technology allows those with access to the means to broadcast whatever they wish to reach a significantly larger number of people. The advent of the printing press was arguably the first major development in the wide-scale dissemination of information \u2014 or disinformation. Prior to this, ideas spread more slowly even though there was a great deal of group-think, particularly of a religious nature. As empires grew, ideas and beliefs became more homogeneous, especially as common languages were adopted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The written word required, of course, the ability to read in order for it to be appreciated or simply understood. The inclusion of the less literate would have to wait until the advent of motion pictures, radio and television. Once that level of technology developed, mass communication became an even more important element of our culture. The nearly instantaneous transmission of words and images carries with it an almost magical aura. Maybe that\u2019s part of the allure of mass media \u2014 the knowledge that millions of people are viewing the same thing at the same time and talking about it. There is an implicit power in numbers that large \u2014 inconceivable but at the same time almost intoxicating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s happened as a result of this intoxication is a kind of skewing of reality. As people absorb what they\u2019re told through mass media, they\u2019re led to believe that the things they\u2019re hearing or seeing are more important or truer than those things they aren\u2019t being told. The news stories and opinions disseminated seem to have far greater weight than the events they experience in their day to day lives. If they are repeatedly shown scenes of violent crime, they come to believe that violent crime is the norm \u2014 even if they haven\u2019t personally experienced it. If they are told a particular person is popular and powerful, that person becomes popular and powerful in their minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it\u2019s clear that this form of mind control isn\u2019t 100% effective. There are doubters and naysayers. There are those who will not go with the crowd. Yet even as some resist the narrative that\u2019s spread far and wide, that narrative still dominates and insinuates itself into the outlooks of even the most cynical. The fact is, there can be more than one thread that runs through the mass media \u2014 more than one point of view \u2014 but those threads make up the fabric which is presented as reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An example of this is found in the sphere of politics. When people try to make decisions about what needs to be done in society, many opinions will emerge from the debate, even though the importance of the debate itself isn\u2019t questioned. One person may want to increase taxes and the other seeks to lower them \u2014 but both agree that the question itself matters a great deal, even though they disagree as to the answer. If an election takes place, different people may support different candidates, but the electoral process is still given credence despite the less publicized notion that it may have little or no real effect on how things are actually done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fabricated reality of the mass experience has become so embedded in the minds of so many that those who somehow pull themselves out of its matrix find themselves in a small minority, surrounded by many who are apparently programmed by the repeated hypnotic suggestions of mass thinking. It seems to be nearly impossible to break through this programming, sometimes doing so but not in a permanent sense. The script is repeated so incessantly, almost to the exclusion of all else, that any breaks in the process are repaired, and people return to it with little or no change in their overall outlook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The script has become internalized, embedding itself in the very process of perception. Any suggestion that it\u2019s simply a fabrication is met with skepticism or even hostility. The underlying worldview that has woven itself into the minds of those conditioned by it appears to be beyond question. Without it, those under its sway would lose their moorings and find themselves in a chaotic world that lacked foundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While mass thinking is pervasive, it isn\u2019t always coherent. Contradictory elements coexist, along with shifts in what is perceived to be true or false. Because certain viewpoints have been incorporated into an individual\u2019s mindset, anything that does not fit elicits resistance or confusion. The internal knowledge either becomes suspect or is held even more tightly out of fear of losing whatever remnant of sense that remains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is the effect of mass thinking on the individual mind that makes it an effective tool for control \u2014 since it is at the individual level that basic moral choices are made. Mass manipulation relies upon the suspension of an individual\u2019s critical thinking or conscience \u2014 or perhaps more accurately, the co-opting of the conscience. The conscience may still function, but perhaps mainly as a tool of whoever controls the mass message. This is how propaganda works: perception is distorted by a flood of filtered information that is crafted by whoever is delivering it to suit their purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is generally thought that in a so-called free society the variety of strains of thought presented gives the individual choices in terms of what or what not to believe. But even with these choices, the propensity to turn to these mass outlets for information or even opinions undermines people\u2019s ability to think for themselves. It reduces their faith in their capacity to critically evaluate what is going on around them. It skews their perspective towards a macro view \u2014 that the only meaningful actions that can be taken are on a large scale \u2014 in the political sense, on the national versus the local level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The full weight of the mass mindset creates the perception that acting locally is relatively insignificant, perhaps even a waste of time. From this perspective, local issues need to be addressed on a national level \u2014 federal laws and agencies are then expected to oversee how local or regional decisions are determined. While in one respect this appears to make sense \u2014 in the way we deal with the prevention or remediation of environmental degradation that involves multiple local jurisdictions \u2014 it overlooks the possibility that there may be other ways such problems could be addressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But once people start seeing things from a macro perspective, the sense of its overwhelming importance overshadows any other possibilities. The irony, of course, is that as individuals our impact on such a large scale is relatively infinitesimal. It is only when we act as a mass that things shift. Yet coordinating such an enormous number of people is extremely difficult. What\u2019s worse, however, is that as soon as we assign others to do the work that needs to be done, those selected individuals have access to immense power which they often abuse. There are certainly plenty of examples of that throughout history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the midst of this mass confusion, where we have lost the ability to make individual choices, our sense of powerlessness and insignificance is heightened by our isolation from each other. What our neighbors have to say seems meaningless by itself, unless it is in line with one of the officially defined truths pronounced by the mass media. We are therefore unable to initiate any kind of meaningful action that does not conform with the authoritative narrative that has become our reality. Those who have aligned themselves with the dominant power and can therefore manipulate the message face no real opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those who may see the dangers of this discover that they can find few, if any, allies to join them in their efforts to transform society. They are left to fulminate impotently on street corners or in the back alleys of social media. And too often even those who have not been co-opted by this process still attempt to find ways to alter the narrative, hoping that at some point the mass media will pick up the message and spread it, supplanting the sanctioned party line. The trouble with this is that they believe the cause of the problem can be used to generate a solution. Using mass media only continues to encourage the passive absorption of information on the part of the populace. It is the process itself that is really at the heart of the problem, and even if it were used for a good purpose, it would have the same corrosive effect on the minds of individuals, impairing their ability to make unbiased judgements for themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is not mass thinking of any kind \u2014 even if those mass thoughts may be essentially correct \u2014 that will free us from this predicament. It is making a genuine effort, within the confines of our limited venues, that will empower those who have been swallowed up by the ubiquitous, synthetic reality of the mass media. Can this be done? Is our culture so thoroughly corrupted by the allure of power and the desire to participate in this groupthink of misinformation and misdirection that our ability to discern the truth is smothered, obliterating our personal sense of self-worth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s hard to imagine that this mindset can be overcome \u2014 we have been imprisoned by it for so long that it seems rock-solid and unassailable. But as with everything else, the first step is to notice it and then to find a way to neutralize it. Most importantly, we must remain constantly aware of it and how it skews our understanding of the world. We must inoculate ourselves and develop a flexible, responsive shared narrative through direct interaction with each other that is not mediated by centrally controlled news outlets and powerful political movements. The truth is not simply what we are told but what we, together, perceive and continually arrive at through collaboration and consensus. In this way we can move away from the quagmire of mass confusion that passes for common knowledge and towards greater clarity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I’m walking along and I see a crowd of people gathering, my first impulse is probably to wonder \u201cWhat\u2019s going on here?\u201d Natural curiosity may lead me to watch the group, strain my ears to hear what\u2019s being said or walk over for a closer look. It could be an accident, it could be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/considerthealternative.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/considerthealternative.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/considerthealternative.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/considerthealternative.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/considerthealternative.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/considerthealternative.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56,"href":"https:\/\/considerthealternative.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions\/56"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/considerthealternative.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/considerthealternative.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/considerthealternative.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/miro.medium.com\/max\/800\/1*LkEYZT9D83mEH6YqLDRNyg.jpeg\")