Swarm Theory & Group Psychology

Unless the individuals in the group become smarter, it is unlikey the group as a whole will become smarter. Also we must consider the intelligence of the goal. "Herd mentality" can become disastrous if the goal is frivolous.

I think that these characteristics of suggestibility and transference are not genetic nor are they evolutionary but they are a result of the society that we have developed.

As the infant matures s/he becomes the passive captor of a need to be accepted, first, by the mother, and then society. The maturing child has shaped herself into the very person who can take for granted that he meets or exceeds what is demanded; s/he gains self-esteem and a growing sense of belonging, with confidence in a developing sense of self-righteousness as a growing natural systematic continuation of the early ego efforts to handle anxiety.

Maturation becomes an extension of the infant's ego struggle against anxiety. Self-esteem becomes the core of human adaptation; this human self-adaptation replaces the animal's biological instinct as the means for adaptation to a changing world. The maturing child discovers that s/he cannot earn parental and social approval, i.e. self-esteem, by continuing to express himself with his body. S/he discovers that he must conduct himself in strict accordance to symbolic codes in order to find approval.

"It seems that the majority of men are suggestible, half-awake children, willing to surrender their will to anyone who speaks with a voice that is threatening or sweet enough to sway them."?-Fromm

We humans lack the courage to be self-reliant. We start life by adapting to our surroundings and we never outgrow that characteristic of acquiring self-confidence through adaptation. I think that Emersion had the right idea, which is that we are afraid to have confidence in our self.

Our ability to follow a leader can be of great value and can also be of great negative worth and our degree of self-reliance will determine how the scale balances between these two factors.

I am convinced that self-reliance comes from the inner confidence that each person can develop through experience and self-actualizing self-learning.

VERY well stated coberst. I applaud

Thank you. Such a positive attitude is a rare thing on these forums.

A positive attitude seems to be rare everywhere. Life is too short for pessimism.

Swarm mentality is a very interesting concept. We seem to be less and less a society of individualism. Whether in grade school or in the work place, it seems almost frightening to step out and do something or say something no one has done or said before. Free thinking (though the catch phrase of the day) seems to be frowned upon. Unless you run with the herd you are an outcast.

The Economy?-The Market?-Family Values?-War on Terrorism?-War on Drugs?-Support the Troops?-Freedom?-Democracy?-Under God?-Pro-life?-Pro-choice--Universal notions concocted to maneuver and to manipulate by appearing to represent the interest of the whole mass of the people.

What is the source for these Universal Notions? Do these notions grow like wild flowers? Do these notions form like raindrops and fall to earth to nourish and to refresh all citizens? Are these notions universally benign and beneficial?

Such Universal Notions have a human source and are devised to promote the interests of that source. I suspect that all such notions and many others more mundane have a common source?-ideology.

Ideology makes the world-go-round and we know less than nothing about ideology because knowing only that which is erroneous is equivalent to knowing less-than-nothing.

Of special interest to me is the college course outline and content placed on the Internet by the college professor for students of a particular college course. At no significant financial cost one can, through the Internet, take advantage of a college course outline at home. One particular example of such a course "Ideology & Discourse" can be found at http://www.discourse-in-society.org/ideo-dis2.htm.

I can think of few domains of knowledge more important for a person attempting to understand her or his world than ideology.

I suspect many people confuse the content of ideology with the content of philosophy. It is not unusual for someone to question another's philosophy or worldview when in fact it is the ideology of the person that is the correct question.

Psychology and sociology have generally decided to use the word ?'belief' to replace a more ambiguous word ?'idea' and ?'thoughts' of any kind; I shall follow that same practice in this thread.

In keeping with this attitude and the course of study "Ideology and Discourse: A Multidisplinary Introduction" I shall use the following definition:

Ideologies are the fundamental beliefs of a group and its members.

This definition was chosen by the author to replace an often used meaning of ideology as ?'false consciousness' or ?'misguided beliefs'. This more general definition will permit a more rational consideration of this domain of knowledge identified as ?'Ideology'.

The word ?'ideology' has a very negative connotation in political discourse and thus in discourse in general. This apriori negative attitude makes it impossible to give rational consideration to this very important concept. Perhaps the first thing that a person must do to gain knowledge about this important concept is to erase this negative attitude, which has been a result of social osmosis in so many people.

Social discourse plays an essential role in why we adopt ideology, what we know about it and how ideology becomes the most important sociocentric influence in our life. Discourse plays a fundamental role in the nature of ideology and thus discourse is an important consideration in the study of the nature of ideology.

Ideology and discourse is a multidiscipline subject of study. One must approach it from most of the domains of knowledge in the humanities and the social sciences. "However, we shall reduce this large number of potential disciplines to three main clusters, namely those involved in the study of Discourse, Cognition and Society."

Virtually all people agree that ideology is about the beliefs of a collective of people. "Ideologies consist of shared, social beliefs, and not of personal opinions…Ideologies are about life and death, birth and reproduction…they are about people and their health in relation to their environment…they are about class...about having power…about the redistribution of wealth and resources…they are about gender…about race and ethnicity."

There is an enormous amount of knowledge accepted by an enormous number of people without any consideration. This vast domain of beliefs has been labeled sociocultural ?'common ground' of a group or a culture. There are also a great number of beliefs that are not shared by all and need to be asserted or defended.

Ideologies are considered to be ?'basic beliefs' in that these beliefs form the foundation upon which other beliefs are accepted or rejected. Norms and values are considered to be basic beliefs; they organize our attitudes and actions. Some of these norms and values that are part of every community become translated into basic beliefs of an ideology, therein lies there strength. It is these "group-related and interest defined interpretation of values that form the building blocks of ideological beliefs."

"...without any consideration..." is important to point out. This has been a pet peeve of mine since I was very young. I guess I was always taught to question everything before internalizing as truth. Dad often played devil's advocate with me to encourage me to think and defend my opinions. What would you say to the notion that perhaps swarm mentality is born of each person's desire to be part of something bigger and simply the desire to have a cause worth the effort. I could put this much more eloquently but have not had enough coffee yet this morning.

In the past (regardless of how you may feel about it) the church was an integral part of any community and family. To some degree each individual felt a part of the church community. Although there were still vigilante groups and lynch mobs I would submit that there were less pointless band wagons and apple boxes. This could be also because living was more difficult then and one was pre-occupied with day-to-day sustenance, where as now we have more frivolous time.