Ah, reality sets in once again. We are back from our trip to Vashon Island. The vacation was just the right thing for us, helping us to relax before the onset of the rigors of Fall and Winter. (Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas advertising!)
Also, we were out of touch with political reality for almost a week, as we avoided newspapers and the internet news. But we are back and I had a few papers to read.
Speaking of newspapers…I read an article the other day about group dynamics…or why we do certain things simply because others do them. The article leads off with a story about a young woman who led an exemplary life. She hadn’t taken as much as a paper clip for her personal use from the office where she worked. Then she and her boyfriend had visited the Petrified National Forest. There, she read a sign that advised visitors of the fact that many visitors, over the years, had taken small pieces of the trees for souvenirs and now there were only the larger pieces were left. The sign also included a warning that taking such souvenirs was illegal and violators would be prosecuted. To her boyfriends’ surprise, she told him that they needed to find some small pieces to take home. She became quite adamant about it.
What caused this strange behavior? The article explains that it was the wording on the sign that caused her to start gathering the illegal rock. “many visitors” was the key to her behavior. She didn’t want to be excluded from a group and the fact that it was “many” gave her actions validity in her mind. The possibility of being arrested and/or humiliated became secondary.
Have you ever been faced with choices like that? Have you ever seen this kind of behavior? How about all of those who knew there were WMD’s in Iraq?
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