Watch this interesting little film on the conformity of belief.
I think it gets at something profound and important: people’s beliefs conform to the group in which they are raised. The filmmaker notes the importance of speaking out if you hold a minority opinion and are surrounded by a majority in error.
The worst thing about public education might be the way it forges a conformity of opinion. Students go through 12 years of brainwashing in political correctness. The ideals of the New Left — egalitarianism, the welfare state, multiculturalism, environmentalism, moral relativism, etc. — are taught not as opinions or one side of the argument, but as the cultural norm to which students are expected to conform.
The antidote to the poison of conformist thinking is independent thinking. The more people are encouraged to look at reality and think and judge for themselves, the better. It’s a good idea to get young people reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, the most powerful portrait of the virtue of independence I have read.
The video deals with religion and it is applicable there. But it is just as applicable with all things Leftist. The best point the video made is that just one person dissenting can influence large numbers of people – the video gives the figure 80% of people in these controlled studies.
If there could be some principled and yet high profile challenge and rejection of Leftism that could in theory start a pro-liberty revolution. Sadly the Tea Party does not seem to be that. But perhaps something might develop not too far down the road. Obama is going to do more things that spark outrage for sure.
This is very evident in Sweden, where there’s practially no options in education. There’s only “school”, and the notion of public vs private is never even contemplated.
The country may be small, but even with its 9+ million people, it still feels more like a tribal village than a nation.
I’ll admit to a little Glenn Beck moment here, that I had – when I saw the part of the video where it said people were choosing conformity in the face of an obvious truth like the bar… I actually welled up with emotion a little. It just got me that mad.
There may be other factors in play, I know, but the very *idea* of people showing such disregard for obvious truth just upsets me on a very, very deep level.