Study concludes: People are sheep

Battle_Scarred_Galactico · Intermediate Crude Joined: Apr 07, 2005 Posts: 970

All of us PO aware folks think we're the non-sheep, but what if Yergin, the Prez, etc. are really the leaders after all

I think its' pretty clear you are correct there. We've all had our experiences that show us who people are more willing to believe despite the mountains of evidence.

Us PO'ers are idividual thinkers, but not leaders I would say. I think there are two main reasons why not -

1. Most PO'ers tend to be individualists, and not interested in leading.

2. The message of reality is bleak (ie. your way of life is over, and must change). People will only follow leaders when they believe it will benefit them, and the 'changes' (bit of an understatement) will make people personally worse off.

This leaves the way open for frauds and phoneys, people will follow them and keep making excuses even when everything falls down around their ears.
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"One minute I held the key, next the walls were closed on me, and I discovered that my castle stands upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand."

Aaron

All I know is that no one is better than anyone else, and everyone is the best at everything.
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"When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F Roberts.

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Kingcoal

Actually, if you don't have any time to analyze, it is a life or death situation and most importantly, you haven't planned or prepared, then you have to make do the best you can, which is oftentimes blindly following a leader until you can come up with a plan.

However, I think what this study points out is that even in non life or death situations, people follow leaders. Most people are security freaks. They like familiarity and hate taking risks. The average person is also lazy, which is the biggest problem. Remember having to get up in the front of class and give presentations? Very quickly, they all tend to look the same. People don't want to stick out; they'd rather stick with the herd. Everyone wants to be on the winning team, the good guy’s side, etc. It's human nature, probably because most of the time it works.

However, people get lazy. Most people don't plan, they don't see the writing on the wall, in short; they aren't paranoid enough. "The paranoid survive;" a quote by one of the founders of Intel Corp. I agree with Grove; rational paranoia, which is simply planning around Murphy's Law (what you don’t know can and will hurt you), is always good advice. Always have a plan, that's what successful, leader types do.
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"That's the problem with mercy, kid... It just ain't professional" - Fast Eddie, The Color of Money

POAlex

Yes, we definitely are like sheep.

Thankfully there is a Shepherd.

Alex
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Will you be saved?

zoidberg

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