My guest editorial today in the GRC newspaper...

Group Think

In the stands of a GRC football game, it is all so simple. We are all clad in red, all cheering for a common goal. We celebrate together in victory, console each other in defeat. It is the pure joy of sports: supporting your team no matter what.

This identification with a group satisfies a natural impulse. We congregate around people with similar interests and beliefs. Whether you consider yourself popular or nonconformist, you and your friends likely share similar tastes in clothing, hobbies, and music. This is simply human nature.

However, this impulse endangers us when we forget that we are individuals in those groups, and that those groups do not define us. Unfortunately, many forces in our society desperately want us to forget.

Consider the controversy over the recent education speech by President Obama. A week before the speech, a student asked my thoughts about it and told me she would refuse to watch. Perplexed, I asked why she would not listen and she told me she was a conservative and disagreed strongly with Obama’s liberal policies. She had heard about a boycott campaign promoted by radio personalities.

I told her that while I was certain her 4th block teacher would not force her to watch the speech, my advice was that, regardless of her political affiliation, she should listen to the President’s message. In the end, she would either have her opinion changed in some way, or she would have additional evidence for denouncing Obama’s policies. After all, we gain nothing by only listening to people from our chosen group and ignoring differing voices.

Unfortunately, there are others who gain quite a bit.

Many people and institutions have a vested interest in you forgetting your individuality, swearing allegiance to a group, and behaving in predictable ways. If politicians know that once you register Democrat or Republican you will always vote along party lines, what motivation do they have to address your particular needs? If Aeropostale knows you will purchase anything bearing their logo, why should they improve their products? If a group of friends know you desperately cling to their approval, what will prevent them from acting in ways that are hurtful to you?

The only way to counter this pressure is to follow the advice I gave my student: listen. Certainly listen to people from your group of friends, activities, or political parties. But never be afraid to hear and honestly engage ideas different from your own. If you have not questioned your principles, you don’t have any; you merely have some group’s platform.

Most significantly, listen to yourself. Let neither the insistent shouts nor incessant murmurings of any group drown out the pure, simple voice inside you: your own, true will.