Theories on Society: 'Groupthink' and Culture

This post is definitely inspired by Erykah's Window Seat video, and all the controversy surrounding it. On her twitter she brought up the theory of groupthink, coined by William H. Whyte an American urbanist, organizational analyst, journalist and people-watcher. 


So the idea of groupthink is that people give up their individuality to be part of a larger group. They stop asking questions for fear of upsetting the balance of the group. 


But groupthink is just an extension of culture's affect on humans, almost like an extreme culture scenario. The idea of groupthink is an example of what happens in American culture. In many groups the individual is overshadowed by the group. Like in corporate business doing whatever it takes to make money is what the group does, but as an individual you might feel like doing certain things aren't worth it. Groupthink says you won't voice that, or even acknowledge it inside of you because you don't want to make vibrations in the group (your other business partners/ peers). I mean why would you? They'll look at you like you're crazy ya know. 


Its all a big product of our culture. I can't even put into valid words how epic it is for people to understand what American culture is really all about.
It is a culture specifically designed to keep the working man down, while simultaneously suggesting that through hard work we can eventually get to a place where we are wealthy. Because that's what capitalism is right?


Capitalism says: anybody can make it if they work hard enough. The basis of capitalism is free-enterprise where anyone can start a business, anyone can own a business, and ideally that business has the potential to grow and create wealth.


American culture values the people that make money/ "have made it"/are wealthy. We value and adore wealth no matter how its achieved.


I'm getting off topic.

Think of it this way: Back in the old days they used a donkey and carriage for transportation,with a carrot on a string in front of the donkey to make it move. Now donkey's are hella stubborn. They kick, butt, and generally don't move if they don't want to. But putting this carrot in front of them gives them incentive to move thus carrying the smarter/more manipulative human and carriage. Donkey really deeply believes that because the carrot is in front of him, if he moves forward he'll get the carrot. But ever deceptive human has the carrot on a string, and when donkey moves carrot moves further away. Donkey will press forward, through whatever hard times, it'll climb mountains for this friggin carrot, because it knows without doubt that someday he can have it. In reality, he may or may not ever get that carrot depending on the graciousness of the human.


Its very naiive of the Donkey to think just because the carrot is in front of him, he can have it, hell is entitled to it right? 


American culture is exactly like this analogy. If you see the working class as the donkey, the idealism of wealth as the carrot, and the elite class as the human you have the typography of American culture. The wealthy of America keep promoting this idea that us working class can make it, they put it in front of us dangling there in all its enshrined glory. We fucking glorify that shit. We want that wealth. We really, honestly think we can get it. So we work hard for the benefit of the wealthy, in their factories and businesses, their law firms, their wall street offices. We push through tough times with the thought that we will someday make it always in the back of our minds because thats what big business puts in front of us (the carrot). But we won't get it and not because we didn't work hard enough or because of marketing, the economy, or our education; its because what controls our direction is the wealthy 1% (the human). They control all of that shit, they lobby/can pay for lawmakers to make laws lenient toward them that benefit them, and we are just to busy following that carrot to even wake up and stop them. 

It seems like such a bleak outlook right? But just a deeper look will show you that the Donkey holds the physical power over the human, meaning we, the working class citizens, the proletariat, are the majority. WE DO NOT HAVE TO CHASE THE CARROT. The Donkey is a naturally stubborn animal! If it doesn't want to move IT DOESN'T HAVE TO. We don't have to buy into the 'American dream' of wealth through capitalist ways. Because as long as we do buy into the dream, the vested intrests (Veblen's term for those people or groups who will suffer in the event of social change and who have a stake in maintaining the status quo.), the rich, the wealthy 1% will ALWAYS control us.

And there's the whole propaganda to support capitalism and everything else that America values. Ideas that encourage us to chase the 'american dream'. These ideas confirm what we think; that we can eventually get there. Reason, will tell us that from friggin experience, and all the people that ever believed in capitalism it wasn't a good look. It didn't work. IT FAILED THEM. Reason definitely being overpowered by desire and or spirit is the philosophy of America.

Everything else is a distraction from this. Anything else is a DISTRACTION from the truth that we are being held captive to false pretenses. There's a lot going on in America distracting us from the fact that we have all of this power to overthrow an entire government. Every other issue can be traced back to the fact that the majority is controlled and kept working by a minority.

So what does groupthink have to do with all of this?? Well I know I can't be the only person to ever have realized this or even thought of it. But thinking about it isn't enough. Its speaking out against the lie perpetrated to us that will cause the rifts in the group. So you get people who know about the truth, but don't say anything. And why would they? Its promoted everywhere and in everything. If they just start talking about how doing all this for money doesn't make sense, people are gonna look at them like they're crazy.

groupthink, culture, society, Amerika, distractions, lies. Its almost so simple that its complicated.