Have you ever asked yourself why dictators are the way they are? Why do these guys feel like it's okay for them to decide for the masses? Well, I have always imagined why it is so. While at it, I realized all dictators have one thing in common; their belief that most humans are both incapable and too mentally lazy to make decisions about their own lives and livelihood.
They honestly believe somewhere in their head that humans were meant to serve, hence have no real will or desire of their own, but live for those detailed by their masters. That's a sick way to think of another human being like yourself not to mention a whole nation of people, you might say. Over time, this sick way of viewing humans is beginning to seem not so barbaric.
It's a normal occurrence nowadays to see people make decisions either too quickly or too fast, and along that same line of reflection, it's a common occurrence to see people doing something just because it seem like that's what everyone else is doing. This will bring us to the topic at hand, but let me give an instance for proper understanding.
In every group of people, there are always three classes:
The confident and de-facto leaders of the group
The average people who rarely care about anything
The worst of the land and those who want to be relevant
Of these three groups, the mantle of leadership always certainly fall on those in the first category, no matter the method used in the selection of the leaders of the group in question. However the title of leadership usually fall to either group one or group three. Group two usually are satisfied been just there without much acknowledgement.
Most successful groups, say country for example, are those in which both the mantle and title of leadership fall on members of group one, while the most chaotic and least developed nations of the world are places where the mantle of leadership sometimes fall on the third group, but the title almost certainly fall on them too.
People in the first group usually have minds of their own and can make objective sound decisions when it is needed of them. These kind of people are goal oriented. But sadly, with the rate at which the world is moving, we are having less and less of this group every year.
People in group two on the other hand, usually have a faulty mindset and this reflect in their way of life as well as everything they do. They are also the group that finds fault and failure in everything done by other people in charge, unless they are the ones running things. These group tend to be oppositional and negatively vocal concerning everything.
The people in group two as we have said are pretty docile. These group of people are mentally lazy and physically absent. They are quite okay with people making all the decisions that will direct their life and due to this, they usually have the Herd Mentality. This is the group in which majority of humans fall into.
According to https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/herd-mentality&ved=2ahUKEwiz69SWuar0AhUKKewKHTs2AokQFnoECEoQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1HuSZQRXZAKaFInVnf0y30 "Herd mentality is defined as an inclination to act in the same way as most other people in one's group or society". This decision is mostly based on emotions rather than reason or objectivity. The Herd mentality is at the core of what we term today as peer pressure. Due to the inability to make decisions for ourselves, the tendency to follow the path of any group we find ourselves becomes very appealing. We see it everyday in the choices people make daily, be it about what to say, how to say it, what to wear, shopping behavior, religious affiliation, career choices etc. This results from an individual being influenced by a larger group.
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-a-mob-mentality, In the 1950s, researchers conducted a famous conformity experiment that showed how readily people conform or change their behavior to match social norms. It involved:
A single participant was put in a room with seven undercover accomplices. Asch presented the group with four lines, and the goal was to determine which two lines were the same length. Even though the answer was obvious, the undercover accomplices purposefully gave an incorrect answer. The real participant answered last.
The intent of the experiment was to see if the real participant would give a false answer — conforming with the accomplices — even if the correct answer was clear. The results were surprising. About one-third of the real participants answered incorrectly. They conformed to the wrong answer given by the rest of the group.
Why Did They Do it?
When the participants heard the incorrect answer, some started to believe the incorrect answer was actually correct. The participants conformed mainly because they wanted to fit in with the rest of the group and thought the rest of the group was more informed than they were.
The one-third participants who fell for the bait can be simply identified in group two. The problem with this whole herd mentality thing is, people who have it tend to follow people who are loudest, most confrontational and assertive; and people who fit this description are usually in group three. This makes for bad decisions and direction for the majority, something we see playing out today.
How Can You Tell?
There are some known signs of herd mentality as outlined by https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-a-mob-mentality
1.Optimism disregarding risks (feeling invulnerable)
2. Frequent rationalization of dissenting opinions
3.The belief that the group’s moral standards should apply to all people
4 Self-censorship to maintain the status quo
5.Belief in the illusion that everyone is on the same page
This problem can be tackled by a number of ways such as, learning to make decision for oneself, learning to accept people's disagreement ( agree to disagree ), do not deny bias when you notice them in your decisions or dealing, instead acknowledge them and try to rectify them.
Conclusion
This problem is causing serious harm among the populace today especially among youths where peer pressure is causing majority of our youths into things that are damaging to their future. The sooner we do the little we can by helping that boy or that girl to learn to think for him/herself, the better for the future we hope to leave for our kids
In terms of group, it is necessary to have a leader, but for me it should be a leader who knows how to listen to his/her members. Most in a groups are all dictators, which it leads to wrong decision.