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People Are Sheep, And So What?
Cryptogon recently posted a link to this article as though it were bad news:
People in crowds behave just like sheep, scientists claim, by blindly following one or two people who seem to know where they are going. […] “There are strong parallels with animal grouping behaviour,” says Prof Krause, who reports the work with John Dyer in the Animal Behaviour Journal, with colleagues at the Universities of Oxford and Wales Bangor. […] The work follows another study by Dr Simon Reader of Utrecht University that showed that most of us are happy to play follow-my-leader, even if we are trailing after someone who does not really know where they are going.
The thing nobody in the world is willing to admit, though, is that NOBODY knows what the fuck is going on. EVERYBODY is operating according to their best guess. Reality is an endless negotiation and the best thing you can do is find some good friends and try to just wing it together.
- Sheep Lameness
- Sleeping On The Floor
- Do you need 50,000 sheep? They’re free
- Jesus Is Tricky!
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February 25th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
This was one of the happiest relizations I ever had. It’s the Tao Te Ching’s “what is the wise man but the foolish man’s teacher, what is the foolish man but the wise man’s student?”
This was followed quickly by the terrifying realization that now I had to figure out what the fuck was going on.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
A quick thought that I was trying to put together earlier and couldn’t:
Another way of looking at this is if you’re capable of building it, they will come. Assuming that you can understand what “it” is in the first place.
February 25th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Not really. You more just make decisions about your life and take actions. You never really “figure out” Life, I don’t think.
February 25th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
No doubt, i didn’t mean to imply that it was actually figure-out-able. More that the process of trying to figure out my life was more important than worrying about whether or not everyone else had figured out theirs.
There’s a connection I noticed between accepting your “sheep” nature and taking responsability for not doing so blindly. As you say, to make decisions about your life and take action. Not to find an end-all solution to anything.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Short to medium term…you don’t even need to know what is going on…just act like you do and people will follow.
I remember as a new kid in school, I would tell a joke and people who didn’t know me w ould look at the popular kids andsee if they laughed and if they did they would laugh too!
February 26th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Bingo! It’s all about performance
February 27th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Grouping as friends sounds good… following the leader doesn’t.
Seems to me that the “so what” is in the fact that most people seem more comfortable NOT guessing for themselves, but rather seek someone who presents the image of knowing what’s going on. Their sheepiness is an attempt to avoid the epistemological reality you describe. They’re not thoughful people flocking with like minds–they’re people who trade thought for false comfort.
Eat the leaders! More power to coyotes.
February 27th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
*Sounds* good being the thing. It’s only people who are naturally leaders who don’t like following leaders. Everyone else seems to fucking ADORE it and there’s really nothing wrong with that.
Unfortunately though, you’re always following SOME leader, whether you know it or like it or not. Trying to escape it entirely is a futile and pointless pastime, really.
Then I say: fuck “most people”. You can’t do it for them, and trying to get them to be or act differently than they are right now is YOU becoming a leader and trying to get them to follow you and now you’re right back in another logical impossibility.
Yes, but avoiding reality does not exempt you from it. Ultimately, their experience ends up to be exactly equivalent. We all experience life, we all end up dead.
Comfort is comfort. There’s no such thing as a false comfort. Doesn’t mean it’s good for you though.