Individual or Group.

What is it that makes for being an individual or a group member?

Things that happen in order to be part of the group….  quotes from ‘lumenlearning.com’

I have done a blog on this because it is something that comes up in counselling sometimes, particularly with those who are having problems in the work place, and with those who are part of a gang or a drink or drug culture.

‘Conformity is the change in a person’s behavior to go along with the group, even if he does not agree with the group.’

What factors make a person more likely to yield to group pressure? ‘Research shows that the size of the majority, the presence of another dissenter, and the public or relatively private nature of responses (secret voting) are key influences on conformity. When in a minority of one people tend to go with the group. More than one dissenter makes it easier to not follow the group.’ Why did whole groups take the knee recently….eg police, professional footballers? Were there any dissenters? Takes courage to dissent because it is so public.

‘Compliance can be a form of conformity. Compliance is going along with a request or demand, even if you do not agree with the request.’

‘Obedience is the change of an individual’s behavior to comply with a demand by an authority figure. People often comply with the request because they are concerned about a consequence if they do not comply,’ e.g. losing a job.

Groupthink.

‘Groupthink is the modification of the opinions of members of a group to align with what they believe is the group consensus.’

‘In group situations, the group often takes action that individuals would not perform outside the group setting because groups make more extreme decisions than individuals do. Moreover, groupthink can hinder opposing trains of thought. This elimination of diverse opinions contributes to faulty decision making by the group.’

‘There have been several instances of groupthink in the U.S. government. One example occurred when the United States led a small coalition of nations to invade Iraq in March 2003.’ Intelligent people (well maybe) allowing themselves to be corrupted.

‘Why does groupthink occur? There are several causes of groupthink, which makes it preventable. When the group is highly cohesive, or has a strong sense of connection, maintaining group harmony may become more important to the group than making sound decisions. If the group leader is directive and makes his opinions known, this may discourage group members from disagreeing with the leader. If the group is isolated from hearing alternative or new viewpoints, groupthink may be more likely.’

‘There are several symptoms of groupthink including the following:

• perceiving the group as invulnerable or invincible—believing it can do no wrong
• believing the group is morally correct
• self-censorship by group members, such as withholding information to avoid disrupting the group consensus
• the quashing of dissenting group members’ opinions
• the shielding of the group leader from dissenting views
• perceiving an illusion of unanimity among group members
• holding stereotypes or negative attitudes toward the out-group or others’ with differing viewpoints

·       Group Polarization

·       Another phenomenon that occurs within group settings is group polarization. Group polarization is the strengthening of an original group attitude after the discussion of views within a group.’

‘That is, if a group initially favors a viewpoint, after discussion the group consensus is likely a stronger endorsement of the viewpoint. Conversely, if the group was initially opposed to a viewpoint, group discussion would likely lead to stronger opposition. Group polarization explains many actions taken by groups.’

‘Another way in which a group presence can affect our performance is social loafing. Social loafing is the exertion of less effort by a person working together with a group. Social loafing occurs when our individual performance cannot be evaluated separately from the group. Thus, group performance declines on easy tasks.’

Personally, I think it matters more than anything to be an individual. Only then can you be fully genuine, and honest with integrity. If you decide to go with the group it should only be because you agree with them without succumbing to pressure, or knowing that in your agreement you have not compromised yourself, been dishonest or sacrificed some of your integrity. Once you start making the wrong decisions by compromising yourself you are on a slippery slope whereby it becomes easier to make this more of a pattern, then you become some ‘other person’ not genuinely you anymore.

Of course this is all easy to say. To do it fully, you need to be prepared to lose your job, your friends, and relationships, especially hard to do if you have a family. The hardest place to do this I have found is within the ‘group’ of the workplace. I have put my job on the line a couple of times, and I have resigned from one too. That was so as not to be compromised, and so as not to do dishonest and illegal things. At the time I was not in a relationship and had no family, so there was just me to worry about, so easier.

But I’ve always thought that if you cannot be genuine then what is the point of you?

 'The Unexamined Life is not worth Living.'

Uttered by Socrates at his trial for impiety as described in Plato's Apology.

Examining your life is really the purpose of Existential Counselling/Psychotherapy, although you will be doing that to some extent in any counselling. 

A widely held view is that most people drift through life asleep, not really aware of much that is at the core of life. Only concerned with their own gratification, their own prospects, their own money, their own stuff. Governed by their upbringing, governed by indoctrination, governed by the group behaviour and thought, and the latest trend. Selfishness is a word that comes to my mind at this point.

On the other hand you might be selfless, caring, giving and forgiving, and concerned with the welfare your fellow man.

As we are coming up to Christmas, I am reminded of Dickens and A Christmas Carol, and how Scrooge is made to examine his life. He is repeatedly faced with his selfishness, and his pusuit of wealth at the expense of living, and it is only when faced with his own death that he finally breaks out of his souless existence and becomes a real living, caring, selfless human being. This is the result of an examnined life, that then becomes a life worth living. The story also illustrates the resistence within human beings of examining themselves and changing.

Whether you are in distress or not, counselling can be a very powerful tool in examining your own life, understanding it, changing it and making it more meaningful. One of my clients said everyone should do this. She found it such an exciting uplifting process. After all, what is the point of living this life if you really do not know yourself at the end of it?

 

Conspiracy Theories:

The other day I saw a detailed document on Coronavirus published on Next Door (the local advertising and message board). This was particularly worrying because after I had read much of this long and detailed document I felt I had started believing everything and getting sucked in. When I read that all vaccines were hoaxes and worthless I woke up, and questions fired off in my mind. So what is Small Pox then? Is that a hoax? Did we eradicate it with vaccines or not? Are all those pictures and history I read just fiction then? Is MMR a fiction? Is the general lack of Measles over the last decades a fiction? Are the increased outbreaks of Measles nothing to do with fewer people vaccinating their Kids?

So, I realized that this document shows a trend throughout the decades, which is to place sufficient truth that people recognize within the lies, and which then lures them into believing the fiction. Social media lends itself to this. At this point I felt sick. Remembering that I counselled two ICU nurses who told me what it was like in ICU in the first wave, I felt even more sick. They told me some horror stories. This virus is not a fiction and nor are vaccines.

There are countless conspiracy theories around, and it worries me that truth and lies are becoming so intertwined that realities could be lost. Beliefs bother me enormously, because there are so many people willing to believe so many things without evidence. I feel this is based on their own fears. If you quote evidence or even say the word evidence, or ask what is their evidence, it’s like they don’t hear you as if your vocal cords have suddenly been cut and no sound comes out. It is reminiscent of religion, and its whole detailed structure based on a stark lack of evidence, which many still buy into and which has been used to control and manipulate over the ages.

We are developing new insidious conspiracies, fueled by ignorance and social media. It scares the hell out of me. We even have the phrase ‘fake news’ bandied about, so anything you do not want to accept as the truth you can dismiss by labeling it as fake news.

I am only interested in the truth, absolute truth. I do not mind hearing about ideas, fears and suspicions, but we must treat them with scepticism until we have the evidence to validate them or dismiss them.

You can believe there is a chocolate teapot orbiting between Mars and Jupiter (to use Richard Dawkins analogy) and attach any belief system to it that you want. Because it so small in the vastness of space you cannot prove it is there and you cannot prove it is not there. So any criticism can be told to fuck off. You cannot prove or disprove the belief. This allows a made up belief and a made up world to be clung to indefinitely and spread to others.

So, if we do not change and are not careful we will slip further into something which resembles George Orwell’s 1984, in which lies predominate, and in which truth is manipulated out of awareness.

Covid-19, Attitudes and Health.    6^th October 2020.

Following the rules of lockdown. Have you? Do you? Do the majority follow them? We get media attention on those who do not. To some extent, people have to make their own decisions and interpretations of the rules according to their own circumstances, after all this is not a totalitarian state. I think the emphasis for each of us should be on taking care of others, following the rules for their sake, or keeping your distance for their sake. As you did this you would automatically take care of yourself. And if someone does not feel safe with your decisions, take their feelings into account and try and adjust your actions for their sake, and allow them to do what they need to do. This means challenging yourself, perhaps your own selfishness, but it also means exerting some self-discipline and compassion. I tend to think that we are a somewhat undisciplined society with too much emphasis on entitlement and self.

Following the statistics of Covid has been frustrating for me. I like to know the detail. The parameters have be changed at various points, adding new variables to the same graphs for example, which in science you just don’t do. Important details have been missing as well. And some statistics just disappeared after a time.

I have also had to search hard to find out that the death rate in ICU has been cut by a third through evolving better treatment, and that dexamethasone is increasing this improvement. Why oh why is this so hard to find? We need to be encouraged.

I was staggered to hear this statistic recently. Of those critically ill with Covid-19 in the UK, 30% were overweight, 31% obese, and 12% morbidly obese, making a total of 73%. The same statistic applies in other European countries including Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. This should be a wake up call, and it reflects the poor health in our society today.

This has lead me to look at our vulnerability to disease. Clearly being overweight is a distinct vulnerability, and being overweight is a fairly modern phenomenon. Fast processed food high in calories and low in nutritional value is a big problem. The Victorians of the mid 19^th century used to eat far more fruit and vegetables, and about twice as many calories (nutritional ones), but they worked it off with physical work, and so they were not overweight. Because of the amount of fruit and vegetables they ate, they got the required amounts of vitamins and minerals to support their immune system. It is essentially impossible to do this on our calorie intake today. If you eat a lot of junk food, you might be taking in the calories but not the nutrition.

Being overweight causes inflammation which is the curse of our health today more so than infectious diseases. Inflammation attacks the body, progressively damaging it over a long period of time and eventually causing degenerative diseases, something the Victorians did not generally suffer from. Things like Type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. It also compromises immunity.  Auto immune diseases are a modern phenomenon, and cancer is common rather than rare as it was in the Victorian era, and this is clearly linked to diet. Overweight means having white adipose fat (as opposed to normal yellow fat) which secretes adipocytokines linked to inflammation and the dangerous cytokine storm you might have heard about with Covid patients in ICU. Degenerative disease is progressive so you are going to get more ill as you get older. I think this might distort the significance of age alone in the ICU/death statistics.

I am coming round to seeing that we live in a society with many many sick people in it who do not need to be sick. Rather than do something about it for ourselves we seem to want drug fixes and vaccines. The drugs just treat the symptoms though, they don’t fix the problem.

I still cannot find the statistic which shows how many people have got seriously ill/died in different age groups who are genuinely healthy, without any medical conditions, who eat healthily, get the right amount of vitamins and minerals, who are of healthy weight, and exercise regularly. I suspect, that in all age groups there are very very few, and any could be expressed as anomalies maybe due to genetic reasons. So, is it time to focus on your health??