Labels, Collectives, and Groupthink... What Happens to the Individual?

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny

Labels. For some reason people like labels. Maybe it is because, like the labels on a piece of clothing you can always identify the product particulars.

Could be it simply gives comfort to people knowing the label they chose to wear tells others something about them. You know, sort of a status thing.

Like what church somebody belongs to, or what political ideology or party one is affiliated with. Being a individual, and at the same time fitting into the mold of some particular collective (the label) seems to be quite important to people.

Which explains, I suppose, the dynamics of the individuals need to fit in and the phenomenon known as group think. Always a puzzler to me as it does present inherent contradictions.

Thinking about this phenomenon, as it applies to political ideologies or party, explains why people seem so entrenched in their beliefs. Having bought into the "party line" one does not want to be considered the outsider within the group.

Group (label) identity becomes all important. No longer is the individual, or the integrity of a particular premise important, the group (label) has overshadowed and overpowered all else. Independent thinking and individual integrity becomes something to be scoffed at.

By some. Not by all.

Via: Wikipedia