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| Why is everyone so afraid to think for themselves?
Posted: 7/14/2009 10:12:40 PM | i think humans definately have the potential for instinct. Fortunately, our higher brain functions usually override these. When we are presented with a danger....say, we are walking down the street and see two men coming towards us from the other way, screaming insults to everyone they pass.
Naturally, as they approach you, your heart will begin to race, your face and neck will feel hot, and become red. And you will want to flee (maybe at least cross the streat). But your cognitive process can overrule that. Before you act, you will think it through. You may say "oh, they are just drunk teenagers being jerks..just keep my head down and walk past them".....or you may say "yeah, this is dangerous, i'm going to other side of street"......but, ultimately it was your reasoning that makes you choose, not an instinctual behavior. | |
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| Why is everyone so afraid to think for themselves?
Posted: 7/15/2009 6:52:01 AM | OP- I know what you mean. I went to see this band and they all played in the same key. Same time signature. 3 guys sang and they even sang the same words. Even some of the audience sang the same words. There may be hope for them though. They did sing different notes.
And words. I often use 'Schtuppendelichenphor" instead of "Paraguay" and people get this strange, blazquitic look on their face.
Americans can still proudly claim their independence of thought, though. While Jerry Lewis and David Hasselhoff mesmerized the audiences of France and Germany, we realized their original attractions were dependent on Dean Martin and the boobs. | |
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| Why is everyone so afraid to think for themselves?
Posted: 7/15/2009 7:00:15 AM | "Why is everyone so afraid to think for themselves?"
Mr. Logic Lemming,
by asking the question in the title you in effect defer the thinking to others. You are too much of a follower to figure out the answer; you are asking the great beyond, the forum community here for sure, to 1. think about your question and then 2. give you a satisfactory answer.
This is exactly what you are talking about: Fear or inability for one to think for him/herself.
Why do you think you are a lemming, Mr. Lemming? | |
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| Why is everyone so afraid to think for themselves?
Posted: 7/15/2009 7:48:44 AM | Most times, there's an advantage to be a Lemming. Only when everything goes to hell do people, who just happen to have miss *that boat, start laughing and saying.. "You idiot!"
IMHO, if you're not a Lemming, you're a wolf, dead, or a hermit.
<div class='quote'>Another example is that when dogs get scared, they tend to bear their teeth, and even attack. Humans don't. They tend to flee when they are scared, and only tend to attack when they are not.Ever hear of a fear biter? But for people (and I guess for dogs as well) it depends on the personality type. Some have the fright response (a startled horse), and some have the attack response. I experienced both. I suspect that the trauma you experience as a youth determines the percentage of fight or flight reactions invoked, but only marginally. It mostly depends on the personality type. | |
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| Why is everyone so afraid to think for themselves?
Posted: 7/15/2009 9:20:05 AM | RE Msg: 101 by greg14229:
Another example is that when dogs get scared, they tend to bear their teeth, and even attack. Humans don't. They tend to flee when they are scared, and only tend to attack when they are not. this isnt true. Humans actually tend to act similar to many animals. There is nothing to separate us. Unless the dog is unusually aggressive, it will also flee when scared. It attacks if it feels it is backed into a corner. Same goes for people. They flee naturally when frightened, but if backed into a corner, we will attack.
People tend to attack when they are not scared?? Only if they are a violent criminal. When do people attack in lack of fright? Thats not our nature. People who feel that there is someone who might cause harm to them if not forced to flee, and who are not afraid of that threat, tend to attack. Violent criminals attack when they have an incentive to gain, such as by gaining money. By and large, most people don't feel that someone else is going to cause them any harm, and when they do, they tend to be of the impression that they cannot win, such as when corporations screw people over. A common example is that when people buy a product that turns out to be faulty, most don't take it back, unless it is of a very large expense, that they simply cannot afford to lose. It is only the minority who always claim on their warranty for every dud product that they buy.
Only emotions are communicated non-verbally, by facial expressions and body language. So they can be communicated as quickly as you can see, in 1/10th of a second. So in only 1 second, your emotion can spread to 10 other people. If each person has 2 people in their field of view, then this multiplies by 2 each time, and in 1 second, your emotion can spread to 1000 people. That means that fear, or happiness, or any emotion, can spread like wildfire. That's why when people lose confidence in stock markets and panic, the stock market can collapse in a single day. The panic spreads unbelievably quickly. Your basic premise is correct, but why do you always feel you need to make up numbers to prove your point? This whole paragraph is just fiction. Since you are trying to be mathematically precise, i'll add to what you said. You can't actually transmit emotions in sequence to 10 people in a second, because there is more in the time factor than the time it takes for the image of the emotional face to get to your eye. It also, has to process in the brain, then travel back down the nervous system to control the muscles of the next person's face. I think if you were to do an experiment, it would actually take 4 or more seconds to transmit an emotion down a chain of 10 people. Other than that, i agree with the paragraph. I just think a brief response without fictional math would be more persuasive.
4 seconds seems far too long to me, because I can see people's reactions instantaneously to other people's expressions. When people show disgust in their face, other people show a reaction in their faces, in less than 1 second. You have to remember, that the nerves of the body travel at the speed of electricity, not the speed of thought. Transmitting a muscle reaction is a heck of a lot quicker than it takes to think. That's why we braking distance is split into thinking distance, the time it takes to think to brake, and stopping distance, the time it takes for the car physically to stop, but not reaction distance, the time it takes to physically exert one's muscles to press on the brake. The time it takes once the brain has already sent the message to the nerves, to make the muscles press on the pedal, is negligible at speeds below 200mph, because that takes place at the speed of electricity.
Maybe we disagree on the details. But I hope that we can agree in principle, and not let this devolve into yet another long argument. | |
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| Why is everyone so afraid to think for themselves?
Posted: 7/15/2009 10:40:09 AM | Why does everybody call them lemmings? Are you afraid to think for yourself and call them something else?
Hmmm?
Peer pressure is a reason why some people like to think like the crowd. Many people don't appreciate my polygamous stance. I am not here to make friends witrh hostile people. So many here seem to think I am. Not so. I am kinder and gentler, and I seek the same. I want lots of friends, and I hope them to be female. I don't even know whay anybody would try to pawn me off and even consider themselves a peer of mine without asking the key questions about who I really am.
Sometimes, if you don't submit to authority and bow to the pressure, you will suffer political and legal consequences. Either you can handle it, or you can think like they do. Most people want to be "popular" with all of the drama queens. Not me. I would rather get booted from this site than watch it get taken over by mindless trolls. It would only be the 5th or 6th forum to do so. (Be taken over by mindless trolls. I have only been booted by two. I left the others on my own.)
Shall we engage in another round of name calling, or just eat popcorn and watch the troll wars? | |
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| Why is everyone so afraid to think for themselves?
Posted: 7/21/2009 11:24:32 PM | | It's because if people actually think for themselves, they would have to take responsibility for their actions. Most would rather have someone else think for them so that they can blame them if something goes wrong. That's just my soon to be .002 cents. | |
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| Why is everyone so afraid to think for themselves?
Posted: 7/23/2009 6:39:31 AM | | Because as humans, we are interdependent on eachother. Obviously this means we seek approval that the way we do things is okay - it's all about fitting a societal norm or at least finding others who can give us affirmation about what we believe or how we act. We're divided by groups of race, religion and ideologies, birds of a feather flock together. Nobody wants to be an outcast. | |
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| Why is everyone so afraid to think for themselves?
Posted: 7/23/2009 9:17:48 AM | but I am, I think, an outcast.
it does feel like a test of sorts though, when your kind of on your own.
oh, so alone!
its nice to find one person that accepts you, though! [think I did]
if you convinced yourself that you are looking for the truth, you feel more validated.
on we trudge | |
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| Why is everyone so afraid to think for themselves?
Posted: 7/24/2009 3:56:34 AM | Just thinking of other social animals who live in groups, like wolves.
Most wolves live within a pack. There are lone wolves (the free thinkers, so to speak), but they are fewer in number.
So there's the biological answer: Conformity is genetically programmed in humans. | |
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| Why is everyone so afraid to think for themselves?
Posted: 7/24/2009 6:23:03 AM | its impossible to know where the pack is heading, even at the front, and it might not stop in time, even if you do see the danger.
must always do your best to know where it is heading, OR choose your own path!
thinking for yourself might have to be learned, though. | |
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