Let's Face the Truth, I Was A Hack

I am sure that some of my readers think I support the Occupy Wall Street movement. I do not. While I see the same issues they see, the solutions they offer are naive to the point of being infantile. 

What I have been trying to point out is that many of the criticisms of OWS are unfair. I have been known to defend others that are unfairly condemned. For example David Limbaugh said this in his column on taxing the rich:

He wants to keep us preoccupied with greed and hating each other so that we won't have the time to focus on the real cause of our economic nightmare: President Barack Obama.

While I agree with much in the column, blaming Obama for everything is absurd. How can we blame 50 years of stupidity on Obama? The Republicans are making more effort than the Democrats, however they are just as clueless as to the scope of our troubles. 

The error that I am critiquing is group think. Wikipedia defines it for us:

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within groups of people. It is the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints. Antecedent factors such as group cohesiveness, structural faults, and situational context play into the likelihood of whether or not groupthink will impact the decision-making process.

In Limbaugh's case it is Democrats bad, Republicans Good; Tea Party good, OWS bad. Just reverse this for the Democrats. 

I was a victim of group think in the past-that was when I was a "hack." I defended the denomination I was a member of, and to a small degree in leadership, even when it was headed in the wrong direction. Eventually I was forced to leave the group. Only then did I understand. If I had remained, I would still be a hack. 

I suddenly became the "bad guy." I was actually told this by a Lord High Mucky Muck of the denomination a few years later. He said something like this. "I thought when you left that you were the cause of the troubles, now I realize you were not." While I appreciate the change in opinion, he still is in the organization defending it. 

If we allow our membership in a group to tell us how to think, we are headed for trouble. Here is an example of group think in a Florida police department.