The Mob Mentality and Social Discord
How Ignorance Breeds Stupidity and the Blind Leads the Blind (Opinion)
Note: This is an opinion piece. There is no real definitive information in it, unless specifically noted. Links are given to certain articles for references.
Trends. They’re all around us, no matter the area or nation you live in. USA, being the biggest ‘trend setter’ in the West, spills its biggest influences onto the rest of the Western world due to its said influence. I would say that this influence is mainly due to the amount of celebrities that Hollywood and the US music industry creates, second to that are athletes and tech moguls, and at third, companies that sell clothing, merchandise and other products. Good ol’ capitalism at work, eh?
It can be said Hollywood is laden with degeneracy, but nothing compares to their outright blatant and deliberate creation of idols — people turned into figures of adoration — and those that are suckered into their influence. That goes for sports entertainment and the music industry — ie: creating idols out of people, only (but, there have been some scandals over time, obviously). Of course, when people talk about ‘equality’, there, of course, is no ‘equality’ when it comes to popularity and influence through creating ‘popular opinion’.
Celebrities of a ‘certain taste’, a ‘certain flavor’, will always have followers flock favorably to those desired ‘tastes and flavors’. Nothing can compare to what celebrities can do when they access the likes of social media, or even actual media on a broad sense, and try to change pre-existent and NATURAL social norms. Some could say, “Celebrities are a means of creating propaganda unto the masses at a much better efficiency compared to the mainstream media through their status and efficiency”. The counteractive measures against such propaganda by celebrities on social media, of course, is a part of the First Amendment in USA — ie: Freedom of Speech — but the implications of using the First Amendment may see you banned from different platforms for such counteractive measures, being seen as ‘hate speech’, and with saying that, I digress. See here for a previous article.
Social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter — to name some of the biggest platforms) have had a big influence when it comes to following some of the biggest names in the West. YouTube, a second to those names in the lineage for influencing the West. The bigger the name, the bigger the influence, and if the bigger the influence, the bigger the downfall, it would seem in scandalous times. In the ‘court of popular opinion’, nothing really matters but the numbers defending a certain view, topic, or person. It’s like a ‘war’ in the sense that those that do have the larger numbers ‘always win’, are ‘always right’. And those that DO NOT CONFORM to the popular opinions, or views, are to be seen as ‘stupid’, ‘ignorant’, or ‘bigoted’. Even so far on certain topics, they could be seen as ‘an enemy’. Or, so it may seem. But, does ‘popular opinion’ mean that the larger group is right 100% of the time?
‘Social norms’ are mundane in the sense that they can lead to social deformity, the kind that leads to breaking social cohesion. This can be considered as ‘social discord’. Always remember: ‘Two men can not walk together, less they agree.’ But, things are completely different when there are trends that are forced onto the public, ones that have to be ‘accepted’ in order to not suffer the consequences, via new laws, and receiving jail time or a monetary fine.
One form of this ‘acceptance’ is happening at this current moment, helping to break social cohesion, working its “magic” into society via the current trend of “social distancing”, maintaining your 1.5m (5 feet) distance from others due to CoVID-19. I know, some will state that it’s a form of “harm prevention” but it sort of brings on a feeling of what some may call “paranoia”, doesn’t it? Same thing with staying inside if you’re not needed to be out in public or not exercising. “Harm prevention”? Or, is it “manufactured paranoia”? Yet, one could argue that a certain movement can get away with being in public for political protest, even if it is not in the best interest of the general populace.
Whether you like to admit it or not, trends can either be accepted freely, or forced on the general populace, whether by social media, mainstream media or even the law of the land. But, are these trends advantageous to the general populace, or not? Do they affect people in different ways, even to the point of harmful experiences? And, if so, how do you stop the tide of trends that hurt people, prevent the harm that one group can do to another group? Sadly, you can’t, unless one wants to destroy the system/s that allow for such harm to exist.
