On Following the Crowd

The beginning of a new year is conceded to be a good time to look critically at some of the factors that make up our lives, at some of the things we do, and at some of the thinking, both true and false, that we indulge in. One of the fallacies that often appears under this critical scrutiny is the old and unimpressive excuse that we must do certain things merely because “everybody is doing them”⎯which of course is threadbare and untenable. In the first place “everybody” isn’t doing them. In any crowd, thinking people, whether they are in the minority or the majority, are still shaping their own thoughts, making their own decisions, and regulating their own personal conduct, and the philosophy, among our young people especially, of doing things merely “to be a good sport” is an insidious doctrine, greatly to be feared and constantly to be resisted. One thing that youth should remember is that the crowd is not always right. On the contrary, all history proves that the crowd is so very often wrong. It is the crowd who have stoned the prophets and ridiculed the pioneers of every generation. It is usually the crowd who start a boy doing “just this once,” as they say, things which lead to bad habits and more serious consequences. Often it is the crowd who lead us into trouble and desert us when we are in trouble. Following the crowd unthinkingly is often an indication of lack of moral courage, or lack of understanding. The great deceiver of all men has no more useful method of leading his subjects astray than by suggesting that they do things merely because the crowd does them; and those who persuade others to do foolishness, are inviting grave hazard to themselves and to others, because the crowd usually hasn’t any very good idea where it is going. The crowd can’t think. It is only individuals who can think, And so, lest we blindly follow the crowd, it would be well to make our own decisions in accordance with our own convictions, because the crowd may be going in the wrong direction, as it has done so many countless times before.