When We Stop Thinking for Ourselves

The Consequences of Groupthink, Part III

*Jim Jones, cult leader of the People's Temple (see footnote)

I’ve been a people pleaser my entire life. I learned this way of being “good” from an early age. I was the only girl and youngest in my family, with two older brothers and two adult parents, including a father who could be a bully. I experienced a power differential in every familial relationship. I was never anyone’s equal. To “survive,” I learned to please in order to avoid confrontation with those who were bigger, older, smarter, or had more power.

Consequently, thinking my own thoughts and voicing them hasn’t come easily. It’s been a several-decade journey of learning to become a person who pays attention to and cultivates my thoughts about life and expresses them, even at the expense of being disruptive. I’m discovering, as Rabbi Abraham Heschel wrote, that “There is the grain of the prophet in the recesses of every human existence.” I’m finding this grain in the deep recesses of my personhood and clearing space for it to grow. 

It has become a crucial adulting task for me to notice what I really think and feel about the particulars of my life and our world. It still makes me nervous, and yet it seems that this very act is what is required for me to grow into a fully orbed person, like a full moon—rather than a sliver of a moon; like a whole adult rather than a monochromatic “good little girl” who lives my life to please. These tumultuous times within Christendom and country are the context in which I must practice. 

This is the third installment in a blog series concerning the consequences of Groupthink. If you haven’t read Part I or Part II, I recommend doing so. It will provide the backdrop for understanding this second-of-four characteristics of Groupthink gleaned from the story of Barabbas in the Gospels. 

As I continue to reflect on the story of Barabbas’ release, another indication that the crowd was swept up into Groupthink is that no one—not one!—spoke up against the violent rage of the group.

2. They stopped thinking for themselves.

Because the crowds believed what they heard from their religious leaders, they stopped thinking for themselves. Why didn’t they question the release of a known criminal, someone who had been convicted of insurrection and murder in a court of law? Why didn’t they consider the testimony of Jesus’ disciples, many of whom left everything to follow him? Why didn’t they look at the evidence, the miracles, the fruit of Jesus’ life and ask, “Is this the right thing to do?” When people become swayed by Groupthink, they “tend to refrain from expressing doubts and judgments or disagreeing with the consensus.” 

This phenomenon seems especially true of religious people. There’s a particular avoidance of questioning leaders or considering changing one’s mind. Extreme examples would be those involved in cults (see above image and footnote). Cult members remain cult members, in part, because they stop thinking for themselves, stop noticing the dubious character and controlling nature of their leaders, and stop asking questions. They don’t allow themselves to be vexed by what is antithetical to that which is good, right, and just. They go along to get along. (Also important to note is that you can recognize cult leaders by their refusal to allow anyone to question them. Consider this list of 8 criteria for defining Authoritarian Groups by psychiatrist Robert J. Lifton and provided by cult experts Bob and Judy Pardon.)

If belonging requires us to give up our rights and obligations to think for ourselves, we have gone too far in our devotion to any pastor, party, political leader, or people group!

Here are some clarifying questions that can help all of us notice whether we have succumbed to Groupthink and are no longer thinking for ourselves:

1. Do I always agree with everything I read or hear that aligns with my group?

2. Do I always disagree with everything I read or hear that aligns with those outside of or opposed to my group?

3. How do I feel in my body when I think about disagreeing with my group or expressing a dissenting opinion?

4. Do I relate to those who are part of the “other” group as the enemy and assume everything they say is wrong or a lie?

As I wrote earlier, these tumultuous times within Christendom and country are the context in which I must practice thinking my own thoughts and expressing them in prayerful, loving, thoughtful, and prophetic ways. That’s one of the reasons I write. The writing process unearths the questions and concerns I have; it uncovers what I notice and know deep within the prophetic grain in my soul. It’s essential work for all of us, though I certainly don’t believe everyone needs to express themselves as I do. I know that some of you can’t. It would cost too much for you and those you love to speak out. But, please, please—don’t let that stop you from thinking for yourself! 

*Some of you reading this post might be too young to even remember the mass murder-suicide of the People’s Temple cult at Jonestown, Guyana, led by Jim Jones. Those of us who are old enough will never forget it! The death toll exceeded 900, 300 of which were under 17 years of age. Bizarrely enough, Jones began The People’s Temple in Indianapolis, in our neighborhood!