Personal Development: The Herd Is Dangerous
Have you the guts to be different? Have the guts to stand out from the crowd
, to stand apart from your own little herd? Have you what it takes to set yourself apart from all the sad, pathetic people that you hang out with? Yes, normal people are sad and pathetic - and most of us are normal. Seventy years psychological research proves that normal people are crazy, that the normal mind is out of control, preferring to take its instructions - that dictate our behaviour, reactions and our lives - from key events in our formative childhood years, rather than actually taking real action - the only kind of action that will achieve real and exciting results.
Unfortunately, however, you're probably afraid to be different, you're probably afraid of what people will think of you. I've met many people over the years who have told me that they couldn't be super-successful because they'd be afraid of losing their friends. More often than not, the very same people, years later, have come back to me to tell me that they feel liberated by the fact that they no longer hang out with some of their old acquaintances! It turns out that normal people hang around with other normal people as part of some bizarre support mechanism - normal people like to form their own little victim support groups!
However, hanging around with the herd is doing you no good at all. In fact, it's sucking the very life out of you. Herd behaviour is bizarre. Herd behaviour is positively dangerous to both you and everyone else in the herd. Once the herd agrees that some bizarre behaviour is alright, anything goes. You're not even aware this tacit agreement is being made because it's done either subconsciously or by omission - in other words, no one's man enough to say "There's something wrong with that!" Some years ago this was proved in frightening circumstances by what has subsequently become known as the infamous Stanford prison experiment - so-called because the experiment was carried out by Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University in California and involved student volunteers from that university. The volunteers were divided, randomly, into two groups - one group were assigned the role of prisoners for the duration of the two week experiment, the other group of student volunteers were to be the prison guards. The two week experiment had to be stopped after six days - the prison guards had become obscenely violent, the prisoners totally submissive. The key point is that the prison guards simply found their outrageous behaviour to be normal within the context of their role. What started out with minor acts of bullying ended up in major acts of physical and psychological violence. Little by little all the members of the herd agreed - either by act or omission - that their behaviour was acceptable.
This is an extreme example of the effects of group behaviour. It is not, however, an isolated example - similar experiments have led to similar findings. The fact is that all normal people behave inappropriately. They are incapable of behaving in any other manner because they never behave from a clear and focused state of mind that is fully acquainted with the actual facts of what is going on in the here and now. Instead, normal behaviour is dictated by the subconscious mind - which is generally focused on the negative experience of our formative years - and what we see as acceptable around us. Normal behaviour could not be appropriate because it has nothing to do with the reality of the present moment - it is the result of group hypnosis.
We all know of extreme examples of herd-like behaviour - whether it be ethnic cleansing in West Belfast or the Balkans, ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan or Darfur or, on a more ordinary level, the behaviour of unions and employers or employers' groups or bullying in the schoolyard. Inappropriate herd-like behaviour is endemic. And it is squeezing the very life out of you because it is directly and adversely affecting your ability to achieve happiness and the kind of success that you really want. Normal herd mentality is stopping you from doing what your heart desires because to be effortlessly successful and happy you have to be abnormal.
By abnormal, I mean that you have to use your mind differently - you have to learn how to focus your mind on what is actually going on - not what the herd agrees is going on - and learn to take appropriate action rather than simply submit to what the herd agrees as action (which is, of course, only reaction - which generally tends to make things worse). By abnormal, I mean you have to learn the focus and presence of mind that abnormally successful people employ in their daily lives. This is not something that only an elite class can practice - it is an innate and natural ability that we all have - because we were all effortlessly focused when we were children during those all important formative years.
To be blunt about it, you need to forget about the herd - once your back is turned many of them will forget about you - and start putting your own quality of life first. Step out of the norms of herd-like behaviour - you will be amazed at how liberating it really is.
Copyright (c) 2010 Willie Horton
by: Willie Horton
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