Crazy Pills or Critical Thinker? The Dilemma of the Dissenter
The Power of Social Conformity and Self-Censorship
Photo by David Rotimi on Unsplash
An undeniable influence on human behavior is the fear of social isolation. When people have constant worries about the conduct of the group they belong to, it makes them hesitant to conduct deviant acts. The looming threat of isolation can lead to self-censorship because most prioritize avoiding social exclusion. It is when self-doubt converges with the fear of isolation that this weakens individuals against the disapproval of their peer group should they not conform.
Expressing ideas that mirror the majority can enhance our self-confidence and provide us with a sense of security against marginalization, but on the other hand, when our perspectives seem to be in the minority or are rapidly being degraded, our confidence in those ideas may suffer, discouraging us from expressing them publicly.
Some people aren't phased by this and may not be as troubled by the fear of social isolation. For instance, contrarians may find this a perverse kind of pleasure - deriving their sense of self-worth from the refusal to fit in. This sets up the line of individuals who eventually become vocal cheerleaders for what they have been quiet about. However, others remain still silent and kept spreading existing views, setting up the path for Groupthink.
As I look back through these years, I have witnessed a phenomenon called "Groupthink." Coined by psychologist Irving L. Janis, "Groupthink" is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome.
It is when a group values agreement and harmony within its rank more than critical thinking and independent evaluation of ideas. With this line of thought, sub-optimal decisions arise quite often and end up culminating in far-reaching negative consequences.
Groupthink is identified by a certain emphasis on encouraging all members to agree with the prevailing viewpoint or decision, often based on the desire to defend the group's unity or escape interpersonal conflict. Another point of Groupthink is collective rationalization. Group members try to collectively justify or discount warnings and negative feedback when ideas challenge the group's consensus. They may convince themselves that they follow the right way, even if the evidence says the contrary, so they necessarily misinterpret the reality and think everything is alright.
In several instances of the most common Groupthink cases, the members often view their group decisions as morally ordered. This moral righteousness greatly serves to justify most unethical and harmful actions.
Members may stereotype those in opposition to the group's big decisions by calling them outsiders, troublemakers, or enemies, discouraging members from discussing their problems openly and thinking critically. Instead, the group often resorts to self-censorship, where people refrain from expressing their doubts or reservations for fear of being socially rejected or causing conflict, which can lead to a monolithic perspective and a lack of considered critique of ideas.
Dissenters could be directly influenced overtly or subtly since they may face attempts at persuasion, ridicule, or even ostracism by the majority if their view is not in line with the prevailing wave of opinion. Moreover, 'mindguards' may sometimes appear in the form of other group members who protect the majority from information or opinions contradictory to the majority's views.
Groupthink is usually linked to high-stress conditions, cohesive groups with a strong sense of identity, and decision-making situations characterized by consensus-seeking as opposed to critical evaluation.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I felt myself at the epicenter of a clear case of Groupthink. As fear and uncertainty gripped the globe, the ability to voice an alternative view or even question the prevailing narrative diminished at an extraordinary pace. I became one dissident with a critical take on the measures that were implemented to subdue the virus.
I detested the mask and vaccine mandates, the closing of schools and playgrounds, and lengthy closures to many industries, including Broadway, which took an 18-month hiatus. Moreover, the mitigation protocols often seemed nonsensical then and nonsensical now. Those dissenting opinions didn't arise out of contrarianism but flowed out of a genuine concern for the consequences of these measures on society, the public’s mental health, and individual freedom.
I recognized the perils of Groupthink and how this would thwart critical thinking and diversity in perspectives. I knew it was time for me to act. I started writing on Substack and launched this platform (Think Things Through). Here, I am free to openly air my divergent views and make informed contributions to public commentary. I had no fear of expressing my opinion because, in essence, I was confident that open dialogue and the ability to look at things from different angles are needed to navigate the complexity of the pandemic.
Critical thinking ought to be awakened.
My journey as a dissident amidst the COVID-19 pandemic has been driven by a commitment to critical thought, diversity in perspective, and the unyielding belief that individuals who offer a dissenting voice play invaluable roles when shaping our response to unprecedented challenges. This experience highlighted the importance of detecting and struggling with Groupthink, reemphasizing the need for open and informed discussion.
Together with this advance of the pandemic and abundant information becoming available, public perception changed accordingly. For most, it will have taken almost three years to figure that out, but it was a model of the capacity for Groupthink to change over time as new information presented itself. It strengthens my belief in the need to have open and informed discussions as we continue to confront the challenges posed by COVID-19.
It is a lesson from history that a need always exists to encourage diversity of perspectives and enable the voicing of unpopular views, even at the risk of social ostracism.
Have you ever found yourself inadvertently swept up in Groupthink, where the desire for conformity outweighed independent thought? When I think about today's social media echo chambers, extreme political polarization, online cancel culture, corporate decision-making with diversity, equity and inclusion training, and identity politics, they're contemporary examples of Groupthink.
How do you handle being a dissenter when everyone around you seems like they are taking crazy pills?
Clayton Craddock is a devoted father of two, an accomplished musician, and a thought-provoker dedicated to Socratic questioning, challenging the status quo, and encouraging a deeper contemplation on a range of issues. Subscribe to Think Things Through HERE, and for inquiries and to connect, email him here: Clayton@claytoncraddock.com
"How do you handle being a dissenter when everyone around you seems like they are taking crazy pills?"
Shall I tell you.... the story of my life?
Nah, TLDR.
Suffice it to say that owing to whichever set of circumstances you'd care to assign as the cause, I've found myself outside the loop of one form of groupthink after another since earliest childhood, including within my own immediate family and household, way, way, WAY more often than I've ever known what it feels like to 'belong', and even when I thought I did, I knew somewhere deep inside my secret soul that.... I really didn't. Eventually, time after time, this inner self-knowledge (that I never asked for and have spent a lifetime figuring out how to live with) has grown so turbulent within me that the only relief for it has become to flee from my latest surroundings, and set out in the blind uninformed hope that somewhere, somehow, I'll be able to get away with being who I am.
What I live with has been called anything from a bad attitude or a refusal to grow up, to various personality disorders and even just cause for outright rejection and abandonment. My infractions had never amounted to my having done any actual harm to anyone; they simply have proven, again and again, apparently impossible to coexist with.
The only lasting relief for knowing just how inevitable it is, that like clockwork, I'll find myself comprehensively incompatible with the company of others when trying to live on their terms in order not to disturb their equilibrium at the cost of my own is...... not to try to any more.
But the key to this has ultimately proven to be not to hold it against them. (Or, God help me, at least try not to...)
People are who they are. A lesson I've found the hardest to let sink in is that it may be MY opinion that others are indoctrinated or even enslaved by means of the ways they agree to think, speak, act and live, but this isn't going to turn out to be how they view themselves, and they may actually be onto something. Just as I have my reasons for being 'different' and not being willing to subject myself to what feels to me like moral lobotomy in order not to create disturbance, others tend to have their own reasons for just going ahead and fitting in, and not really minding whatever this may cost them because, in their own assessments, the benefits have been worth the costs.
I just seek out and respond to different benefits than they do. It isn't anyone else's 'fault' that what moves them to act as they do is utterly alien and without value to me, nor is it really mine either.
I am who I am too.
So now in my early sixties, I've spent the bulk of the past quarter-century living alone, and loving it. For the past nine years, this has been under my very own(ed) roof, in my beloved little 1965 single-wide that nobody else wanted and that I've made into a right fine little homestead.
Yes, this has cost me the company and even the presence in my life at all of two very wonderful children, each of whom has gone on and grown up without their dad or even knowing each other (two different moms who hate each other more than both hate me put together); it has cost me ever having known what it means to have a real 'career' (which, as a verb, means to spin wildly out of control in rapid descent, a definition aligning much closer to my own experiences of devoting myself to employers and clientele, than the noun ever has), or any fiscal assets worth mentioning, or any sense that even my own family really ever wanted much to do with me if I wasn't planning to leave soon before things turn unpleasant between us.
Three words: SO BE IT.
Not out of spite or even out of resignation, just simple acceptance. I was going to lose all those things and people anyway, or never have them to lose in the first place because, may God forgive me, I'm not at all sure I ever wanted any of them enough to do what it took to have and keep them.
Does this make me a bad person? Those who have decided this in the affirmative about me have this to live with in themselves, and I don't envy them. Having tried to out-judge and out-prosecute others into taking me as I am all my life, I know full well what a burden it is to hold another in such contempt.
So I decided not to any more, and just be what I am. Let them judge me, I don't mind, other than, I hope this doesn't cause them as much harm as my having judged them has caused me. Some will anyway, and this is just no longer any priority for me.