Michael Zisa
Fox
AP Language and Composition
10 October 2018
Defending the Claim of Collectivism
Collectivism is a theory, moral stance or social outlook that pushes toward group work, and its interests over an individual's own ideas. The focus on the group is so emphasized upon that the ideas of the individual are flushed away and now seen as one idea as a group. The problems as to the strength of the influence the group as a whole has over each specific person and to what extent the person will go to feel accepted by the group. The ability of the group to drown out, and control the individual can cause various problems in an array of different situations. It can cause people to be manipulated by the group for the group due to their yearning to be accepted by the group. Collectivism poses a risk to society because of its ability to cause people to behave against their ethics or morals that would normally govern their actions.
The human brain is naturally wired to want to belong in a group, to be accepted. However, most western individuals believe themselves to be just that, individual, they foster the thought that their opinions, and their mind are their own and no one else’s. However, most of these individualistic people are naive in understanding that groups undercut their individuality. It is fact that humans live their lives in groups, be it family, social groups, friends, political parties and religious groups. It is also fact that the majority of humans want to be accepted by these groups, they yearn for their approval. The minority that likes to be solitary are seen as peculiar or selfish (“Group Minds” 724). It is this yearning that drives people to the extremes that they go to in order to please or be accepted by the group of their choosing. It is also applicable to authority figures, and people’s want to please and be approved by an authority figure, someone who is apparently more important, more successful than themselves. They thirst for self-validation in these groups and individuals who tell them “good job” or “you’re a good person.” They use these comments to bolster themselves and make themselves feel good about themselves. To be accepted and liked by the group is a primary thought in a human’s mind.
In 1963 Stanley Milgram a Yale psychologist conducted a study on obedience. He designed an experiment made an individual go against his own morals and his own self ideas to basically hurt innocent people. The experiment consists of three people, the experimenter, the teacher and the learner. In the experiment teachers would read out a sequence of words and the learner would have to repeat the second word over as more sequences were read aloud.when the word was guessed wrong the teacher would administer a “shock” to the learner. These shocks were staged to seem like he was in a lot of discomfort while the experimenter pushed for the teachers to keep on giving shocks all the way up to 150 volts. The experimenter would push the teacher to keep giving shocks making him in a state where his morals were seen as less important so the group or higher authority would benefit. Prior to the experiment, Milgram consulted various men ranging from undergraduate students to practicing psychiatrists. They all concluded that most subjects would refuse to continue the experiment once they reached 150 volts when they believed that the shocks were becoming too much. Surprisingly, about 60% continued with the experiment to the end and the most intense shock was administered (“The Perils of Obedience” 692-696). Originally the experts had thought the subjects would have refused to continue early like many people would agree upon. But when in a state to keep a specific authority pleased the human mind can go against morals. This theory depended on the subjects being empathetic and aware of their morals. However, once an authority figure took responsibility for the learner’s pain and took that weight off the subject’s conscience, it was as if the subjects were able to put their morals and conscience behind them and continue to hurt the learner. This ability to allow people to forget and disregard their morals when the responsibility of the whatever they are doing is not placed on them, but their superior is dangerous because people, if manipulated correctly can be convinced to carry out morally and ethically wrong acts. This can prove to be dangerous to society because it can allow sadistic and evil people carry out actions such as massacres or genocide, using their on-the-ground soldiers, who are only able to carry out such orders because the responsibility won’t be on them, but on their superior.
One of the most infamous examples of the dangers that collectivism poses to society is the tragedy of Jonestown. Jim Jones was a minister who founded his own congregation, The People’s Temple in the 1960s. Although Jones said he was a leader of a religious congregation, it was accused that the People’s Temple was a cult. In the 70s one thousand members of the Temple and Jones moved to Guyana, in South America. It was there they were to build a paradise, but soon came the allegations of mistreatment and people being held there against their will. As tensions and bad press spread Jones’ became insane, eventually he convinced his followers to commit suicide along with himself by drinking kool-aid spiked with cyanide, leading to the death of around 900 civilians (Kim). The majority of said people who willingly committed suicide based on the fact that their leader told them to can be taken as an example of what could happen if a mentally-ill or unfit or even insane person guides their followers the wrong way, resulting in tragedy. The force of collectivism was what allowed 900 innocent people be convinced to kill themselves, while they knew fully what drinking the kool-aid was going to do to them and their kids. Collectivism suppressed the victim's’ feeling of individuality, it caused them to think along with the group and Jones rather than think for themselves. As soon as a few followers showed their consent to drinking the punch, many followed suit thinking, “if it's what the rest are doing.” This resulted in a domino effect, as more people drank even more followed suit, the ones who resisted were forcibly injected. Ultimately, the main risk of collectivism that was observed in the Jonestown tragedy was that the drowning out of the individual and steadfast following of the group can prove harmful to an individual even though the group is doing what seems “right.”
Collectivism may lead an individual who may think that they are strong willed and independent, to do something they might not agree with. For instance, the results of Asch’s experiment, “In ordinary circumstances, individuals matching the lines will make mistakes less than 1 percent of the time, in group pressure… 36.8 percent of the selections” (Asch, par. 7) The sheer increase in wrong answers when put in a group setting, demonstrates the massive effect this has on decision making. This effect could lead to people not following their own opinions and beliefs and that is dangerous to society because it leads society into not making the right decision as a whole. Since this can lead to society making the wrong decisions, it clearly presents the harm that collectivism can bring to society. When talking to the participants of the Asch experiment, they found that, “Many of the individuals who went a long suspected that the majority were “sheep” following the first responder, or that the majority were victims of optical illusion, nevertheless, these suspicions failed to free them at the moment of decision” (Asch, par. 10). Since the author mentions how these individuals suspected the people to be victims of an optical illusion, means that they knew they were wrong, but still answered parallel to the group's decision. This clearly represents a danger to society, because if people are willing to follow a group just to be a part of that group, it will lead to an inaccurate representation of the populations wants and beliefs. This inaccurate representation of the population could cause a society to do something that will ultimately harm their society.
The theory of collectivism and group thought, has been written about, experiments conducted to test its effects, and those effects have been seen in tragedies in the past, most common the case of Jonestown. The effects collectivism have can be observed in everyday life, from in school to work or even hanging out with friends. Collectivism also has it’s more evil effects come to light in events like Jonestown, Stanford Prison Experiment and Stanley Milgram “The Perils of Obedience. Some may see that this collectivism ideology is a good idea like communists being able to order large groups of people However, the main problem that may occur is that many individuals will lose their sense of sharing opinions causing them to not only not care about themselves but to only focus on one thing and that's the group.