Are you a sheep?

[tec0]

I had already said that the contradiction was, in effect, more apparent than real -- and that the point was well made

As regards the "common good syndrome", I am inclined to substitute it with "self interest". Firstly it is difficult to see how the common good is served by bad things? So when you go along with nonsense you, in effect, are failing to serve the common good, even though that is your "excuse".

I think it is more correct to say that the motive, in these situations, is self interest. So you have a mother lying to cover up the fact that her husband has committed murder. The common good (societal) is certainly not served by the lie. However her own interests are.

I think the same holds true as regards the example of the pack you have adverted to. It is in this sense that we have ANC voting against their consciences. I do not believe, for a nano second, that they believe the common good is being served.

The above applies to situations of obvious wrong. If one cannot be sure that one's own stance is correct, then "compromise" is indicated. That is not what we are concerned with when we talk about being " a sheep".

I find it difficult to sustain someone else's prospects and demands. Especially if my own is absented in there train of thought. Thus a single-minded liberation occurred and today we call it a "dog eats dog world" The concept however is as old as greed itself.

Serving self-interest or the common good amounts to the same thing to a point. That said the question needs to be raised; who's common good are you serving? Your own? You're leader's vision?

Fact is how many decisions is placed on necessity/survival and how many of them can be contributed to "group pressure" and social laws? The answer to this question my bring a better understanding to what a mob mentality really is. A shared necessity… There is safety in numbers and we can survive in groups.

Bing completely alone in every decision is a scary prospect and it asks for more than just a mindset and will. It asks for utter commitment and facing the consequences alone. Fact being alone in everything is against our very human nature.

So maybe we are sheep because we have to be?

[wynn]

Hold those thoughts!!
I just need to refill my coffee cup and make some popcorn, this promises to become good entertainment.

[Blurock]

@adrian - maybe you should read my post again. I am not promoting any church or religion which is man made. I do however choose to live believing that there is a God, than to live believing that there is no God and then finding out that I was wrong.

[Martinco]

I do however choose to live believing that there is a God, than to live believing that there is no God and then finding out that I was wrong.

[vieome]

Gold Star post Chris, really enjoyed reading that.

random thought!
Hypothetically if we say that in a nation of sheep, 1% are aware that they are not sheep, this one percent then spreads its belief and frees some sheep from the herd mind, and these become the goats, then more and more sheep become goats(revolution). A new herd mind is formed from the goats who have cleansed themselves of the sheep mind, and in a sense the new goats become the sheep of the goat herd mind.

Larry Wachowski "human beings have this—you know, we're social animals, it's like so much of our reality is our construction based on communication. We have a point of view about the world and we validate it through finding another human being that has a similar point of view, and thus we say ahhh! You know, it's like, because we can't really know anything, so if we just get enough people together, we can believe in castles in the sky..."

[adrianh]

...and of course God isn't going to work out that you simply applied Pascal's Wager.

Look, we all have different beliefs and we all have the right to it. I am just way to skeptical to buy into religion. I do think though that we agree about spirituality on some level. Maybe on the level of the belief in the interconnectedness of all things.

[Mike C]

Bluerock is saying something important, and I think that we are being sidetracked into discussing where these perceptions of right and wrong come from. Steven Covey, in his book "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" would agree with Bluerock in suggesting that there are basic principles or natural laws which are not esoteric, mysterious or religious ideas. Things such as fairness, integrity, honesty, human dignity, excellence, potential etc. seem to exist in all human beings, regardless of social conditioning.
Let's also, in our discussion remember that we must take into account, not only the worst of the human condition, but also the highest that people strive for - and some even achieve.

[Phil Cooper]

The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.
WINSTON CHURCHILL

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right.
H.L. MENCKEN

Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear.
ALAN COREN

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
OSCAR WILDE

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time.
E.B. WHITE

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
ARISTOTLE

[adrianh]

@Phil Cooper - too true

[Blurock]

Bluerock is saying something important, and I think that we are being sidetracked into discussing where these perceptions of right and wrong come from. Steven Covey, in his book "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" would agree with Bluerock in suggesting that there are basic principles or natural laws which are not esoteric, mysterious or religious ideas. Things such as fairness, integrity, honesty, human dignity, excellence, potential etc. seem to exist in all human beings, regardless of social conditioning.
Let's also, in our discussion remember that we must take into account, not only the worst of the human condition, but also the highest that people strive for - and some even achieve.

You may also find this in Maslow's hierarchy of needs.