Thursday 24 November 2022
Herds
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.
Charles Mackay - Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841)
As Christmas approaches it becomes more difficult to set aside the idea that we are manipulated as herds. It’s not an attractive idea, because as social beings we must to a considerable extent do as others do. We can't really leave the social and political herd, yet we are clearly exploited as herds. Net Zero is herd politics – nothing to do with the climate.
Maybe current economic difficulties will have some influence on the more ludicrous herd-like excesses of Christmas though. These woes added to the garish, tat-crammed supermarkets and horrible music could help turn things around in ways we would never have anticipated last Christmas.
Or maybe not because we vote in herds too. One main political party divided into different clans, each with its own traditions, mantras and stories, each deferring to professional herders behind the scenes.
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3 comments:
Sometimes I get the opportunity to speak with a rushing herd member. They briefly sound like an individual, and make determined efforts to relate their own wants and desires to that of the herd; and then they go swirling past.
Normally, though, the herd goes stampeding past and I just have to step back out of the way. That's the point of politicians, it seems - to get a good stampede going, and to try to influence the direction.
It's a herd life. Or maybe a better description would be humans as troop animals (like our ancestors) - but clever enough to bind different troops together with stories.
This would go some way to explaining how small groups of people (think soccer hooligans, hen parties, and Insulate Britain protesters) can behave quite badly if they don't buy into the various 'herd' narratives of the day.
Sam - it's grim if you dwell on it too often. Decidedly uncomfortable questions arise.
DJ - those small groups seem to buy into much tighter group narratives as if the tightness of the narrative is itself an attraction if it rules out many uncertainties.
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