Sunday, April 26, 2020

Thoughts on the Madness of Crowds


I recently read the new book by Douglas Murray, “The Madness of Crowds”, and it got me thinking about items that have puzzled me for some time. A case in point, something I have mentioned before, is our innate hypocrisy. How do we fight discrimination? Why, by discriminating! Take “affirmative action” as a great example. Or how about how best to fight bullying? By bullying the bullies of course! The most recent irony is how do we come together as a global community? By accentuating our differences! You know, “diversity is our strength”. It made me realise that the egalitarianism promoted by science fiction shows such as Star Trek, set in the future, cannot and will not ever happen if we continue as we do. In effect we are in the throws of tearing apart every societal gain we made during the Twentieth Century all in the name of creating “a better world”. We very well may be on the verge of a major upheaval that could set us back to a primitive time we struggled so hard to escape. While I hope to live to a ripe old age it may not happen due to the “kindness” of others. As Pogo the Opossum once said; “I have seen the enemy and he is us”.

In the first 2 decades of the 21st century a lot of these negative changes have been fomenting, and I have wondered why they have gained the popularity that they have as they can easily be refuted as making no sense. The very title of Murray’s book gives the reason; while people, as individuals, act in a sane fashion, once they take part in a crowd, they let their irrational aspects come to the surface and madness ensues. We have all seen this with basic morals and ethics. A person publicly abhors the killing of another person yet has no problem throwing deadly projectiles at someone else if they are amongst a crowd. Their inhibitions are lost, and the true personality is exposed. Just like Jeckle and Hyde.

This madness has been accentuated by “social media” whereby it is so easy to be anonymous in the propagation of trolling and slandering of others. The worst, in my mind, is Twitter, apply named as only a twit would have the gall to take part. But like so many things there are positive aspects. South of the border President Trump has used it with great skill to get simple messages out unfiltered by a very biased media. You may consider him a twit but at the very least he is not pretending to be someone else and if you take the time to properly parse his messages you quickly see that they expose a truth that others, the media in particular, actively try to hide.

Note that this collective madness is being magnified by our mainstream media. How else can you describe a group that do their very best to cut their own throats by alienating a significant portion of their potential readership? Journalist ethics have been cast aside and for what? The promotion of thoughts and ideas that we worked so hard in the latter parts of the 20th century to rid ourselves of, such as racism, sexism and all other divisive measures.

For me a highlight of the evolution of our nation was the repatriation of our constitution in 1982. No sooner was that affirmed by Parliament that the backward slide began. Maybe it began back in 1968 when Pierre Elliot Trudeau first declared that “Canada must be a just society” where “the rights of minorities will be safe from the whims of intolerant majorities”. At face value, especially for a person such as myself who grew up and still resides in an area that has wants and needs that are a minority to the wants and needs of the far more populated regions of Canada, it resonated well. In practice it has become perverted.

I suppose the greatest perversion is that “rights” have lost their meaning. Under our Constitution we all have “the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.” Now we are not “equal” because of our race, colour, sex and age as just some examples. It has reached the point that even the basic “freedom of speech” is being denied by the charge that something you say can be considered “racist” just because of the colour of your skin if deemed inappropriate to the situation.

Another perversion taking place right now are our basic “freedoms” from the same Constitution. Two of our supposedly “fundamental freedoms” are the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association. Both have been turned off, or at least limited, thanks to the current, as I write this, Covid-19 “pandemic”.

You see, the “madness of crowds” has been working hard to destroy those things that we had believed make a “civilised society”. More and more we are seeing the return to rule by tyrants and the loss of everything of value we had worked so hard to gain over so many generations. At the forefront is “Socialism” – the sheep’s clothing being used by the wolves of discord.

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I don't want to live in a bubble so if you have a different take or can suggest a different source of information go for it!