Stupid

. . . like the dull and stupid they perish . . . 

 - From Psalm 49

I've always marveled at the lure of the crowd. 

I come from a proud tradition of people that willfully, even spitefully, resisted popular movements and people. I learned to disdain Groupthink at a young age. As a boy in my neighborhood, I feared and abhorred the crowd more than the toughest bully. A bully is one person. I have a better chance against him, than against the random, morphing, fleeting, highly emotional mob. 

We kids would "gang up" on anyone absent, for no reason at all. The spell of Groupthink is too overwhelming. 

I have observed it among adults as well. In college. In the workplace. In organizations. In neighborhoods. 

Indeed, the one place where I have felt safe from the threat of gangs, crowds, and the mob, is in the family. You're stuck in your family. You cannot be kicked out. Sure, your parents may disown you . . . but they will always be your mom and dad. DNA doesn't lie. I will always be a full member of dozens of different families (even hundreds) brought into being by my ancestors. 

We follow crowds perhaps, exactly because the bully is their leader. Or maybe because they are numerous enough to pound down bullies. Or maybe they have wealth behind them, and can do cool things. Perhaps they get on TV and in tabloids. They are "popular." They also are very, very cruel.

And so we believe whatever the crowd wants us to believe. 

We have learned, since 2020, that the masses can do whatever we want them to do, with a skilled enough of a campaign, packaging the message just so. There comes a point where no one will stand up to the prevailing narrative. No one. And people will even be convinced that this is how they felt, all along. 

The solution is utter freedom of speech, and of conscience, for all. 

The Psalmist alludes to this. None of us end up better off than any of the others. We all wind up in the grave. We're all going to die. And in the line that I referenced, it says that the wise are no better than the stupid. 

Your cool President in 2014 is no better than your outsider President in 2018. And he's no better than your woke President in 2022. The oaf, the moron, the anointed, the pedo, the buffoon, the dealer, the golden boy . . . none is any better than any of the others . . . in the end. 

So again . . . maybe Freedom of conscience and of speech are the way to go, to be safe, to move forward, to avoid making horrible mistakes. 

And we do want safety, right?