The herd of sheep

 

An experiment was carried out to assess the individual and collective evaluation of a situation or decision making. There were some jars full of coins. The participants were individually asked to estimate the number of coins in jars of various sizes. Surprisingly the estimates swung between two ends—too much and too less off the mark.

Then the sum total was carried out to calculate the average estimation. The average came very near to the exact number of coins. The plus and minus cancel each other to take a balanced position. But it’s possible only when there is no homogenizing influence to tilt the individuals’ opinion, calculation or way of thinking.

Democracy originated in small Greek and ancient Indian republics in the Gangetic plains. The population was small. The tools of mass influence didn’t exist. The majority assessed the character of a contender as per their own set of individual or little group beliefs, expectations and motives. The various ends of the spectrum came to a healthy average—the choice nearing the best leader of the lot (in strictly relative terms).

I would call it the utopian form of democracy. But things have changed drastically now. Under the onslaught of mass media and other influencers like the social media tools, very few individuals think independently these days. The people feel comfortable and safe in becoming part of a narrative, ideology or shrewdly set-up framework by the power aspirants.

The media, social media and various other tools of influencers now influence the masses in a way that thoughts become like factory products—mechanized, on a set pattern. So when millions go to vote to elect their leader or representative, it’s not the competition among millions of choices to give a healthy, impartial average choice. Rather, it’s simply a clash among a few categories of choices—just a few dozen on the basis of ideologies and narratives that are served to the masses through media and which the masses consume so copiously.

The minds of the masses are fabricated to act, believe and think as per a few set patterns that serve the interests of the power contenders. It’s about diluting the individual’s independent, sovereign choice and opinion and implant a pre-set option in him. So millions of individual choices have trickled down to a handful of options.

To what extent an individual can be influenced or primed to act in a pre-determined manner can be gauzed from horseracing punters’ cleverness. The cleverest better puts very high stakes on the weakest horse. His cronies spread the word. The crowd takes the weakest horse as the strongest contender. They put high stakes on it. The smart guys meanwhile win sacks of money on the real contender whose bets were ignored by the majority under the spell of the false narrative.

Well, democracy is about individual choice. But presently there are efforts to chuck out that choice.