Subtle can things presented to you be. In gradients of unawareness, one falls into a surreptitious herd mentality.
Not all herds are harmful, thankfully.
And, yet, what to point out is, there need not many to veer you away from the right path of truth.
All of a sudden, what is true no longer may be true at all. It is just what you have fallen to believe or follow.
The more I watch my children and other people’s children around me grow, the more convincing of existent power within herd mentality exists.
The influence of herd mentality has no restrictions with time, age, or anything else for that matter.
If you are even somewhat intrigued or curious, whether in heart, mind, body, or spirit, the indoctrination has already begun.
One can only hope your full armor of breastplate, belt, shoes, shield, helmet, and sword are fastened before your senses are triggered by the world.
I have sat in classes where I’ve witnessed or watched where one can be pressured to finally agree, even if one’s sole convictions are clearly strong and quite the most true of all.
For the sake of peace or just surrender, one submittingly concurs.
Only when one’s strong convictions or loyalty to stand against opposition have I seen undeterred minds.
To just have one to believe in you or for one to isolate their beliefs from others, situates one to have stronger stance.
To agree with all others on a simple task as matching the length of a line viewed by everyone when clearly you are certain you stand to be the only one correct is hard to believe or imagine. Yet, time and time again, such mind shifts have proven to happen.
Informational or normative, as noted in the following, one’s mind can be moved:
I have discussed and even personally moved minds where one is led to wonder, to second-guess their very sure actions.
Unawareness of infiltration. Powerful.
I am thankful for such awareness as I continue to go forth in life.
While a strong heart, mind, body, and spirit may still be able to keep their own stance, heavily grounded toward the focused direction, there can be lingering debris that creep within any boundaries.
And, so, that internal power must stay focused while simultaneously being aware of all externals.
Turn your senses on to the world and endless examples of dissuasion or persuasion ceaselessly take place around and throughout the world.
From classrooms to political forums, one can sit back and watch the influential impact on people.
Herd mentalities can be detrimental, but in hindsight, if used in light, can be the power to bring those out of darkness.
Let us think of those who isolate thyself to prevent outside influence or interruption of focus as a choice.
Innocuous in saying, but for those left alone with dark thoughts, plotting deeper into the abyss, such heavy shackles will weigh a person down, only desiring to act out what they have already perfected repeatedly in the heart, mind, and spirit. The body is the only thing left to fully act out what has been thought to do.
Here is where darkness is most perilous- at deepest distance, the unreachable.
These isolations suggests the need for early intervention with a herd mentality of pure light, those who want to help lift others out around them from any such fall before the pit continues to sink deeper.
And, so, I reflect here. How many such herds are out there with the intent to lead those into light?
Do we each take accountability for what we try to get others to agree upon by reflecting on our own intentions first?
And, yet, as power comes from within, should we redirect accountability by noting that while herd mentalities may be forcefully cataclysmic, ultimately, each individual should be held responsible for their own choices?
In harsh truth, is it not what we lead or follow the consequential concern?
In our led or followed actions, whether created, placed, fallen, walked, or jumped into, are we not still each accountable for our actions, given power to step out at a moment of discomfort?
To step back and go, Hmmm or Whoa or Oh, no or Absolutely not – should these be auditorily, visibly, olfactorily, gustatorily, and tactilely already founded in our power stance?
Yes?
To go with the flow works in some cases.
Does it for all?
From what I see, sometimes I must note, there seems to exist a quid pro quo exchange while the foot-in-the-door tactic takes place.
Once one enters, reciprocating acceptance or a sense of belonging, all of a sudden, the ground standing upon may not be internally thought out to be the same for all- just common enough to keep everyone within the fence.
Common ground. Should that be seen from the outside as same beliefs, understanding, or even, truth?
I observe, peacefully obliging in my own journeys of loyalty and friendship, how common grounds can take form.
Your friend who doesn’t like another all of a sudden just gained several new enemies (such a strong word here, but this goes along with that your enemy is my enemy perhaps, sometimes unspoken, but understood, oath of loyalty).
The closer the bond, the more challenging to break free from the collectives.
I recall running into a relative attending a different school to visit mine who was coming to fight another.
Why? Because this person in our school allegedly had been talking about their friend (this was high school; kind of like the social media now, if you want to go there- the physical traded in for the virtual).
That silent me inside thought, “Is this friend worth fighting for without even hearing the other side?” Even greater in thought, “Where is your friend who should be standing next to you to fight their own battle?”
I bid my farewell and walked away. My relative was not in present danger, whether going in that direction or not by choice.
Wrong of me to not intervene? Hmmm.
We tell our children to stay away from any sense of trouble. I have gone as far as to correcting another child in my car upon having made a statement about their mother I was not going to just have passively go through my daughters’ ears.
I was neither a Super-Mom nor a favorite friend’s mom at that moment.
Whoa? Oh, no? Absolutely not.
What I hope for all in that car, not just my daughters, all of great, but young minds, will have taken from that moment when they become responsible adults is- stand to protect when you sense your duty to keep all under light.
While the youth think to already know everything, I believe those who arrive to admit they know not much at all have actually arrived to fullest maturity.
I have had to walk away from minds I have not only grown to respect, but honor and love.
It is not until you step away when you come to realize how your own thoughts and actions were led by minds of others that eventually became yours.
It is not one’s responsibility to change other people’s minds. One’s only responsibility would be to continue to protect and shield their own.
I have completely embraced the stances of those who others have worked hard to pull me from and yet, I am thankful to have stood by.
As I have told my husband way back in our first year of togetherness when he shared with me a statement given by a trusted friend, “Consider your resource.”
I was merely suggesting, as we do for each other still today, that before you go believing any likings of what one says, no matter how believable or good all sounds, first consider who and what you are listening to.
We both check each other this way when we hear of something that someone has said or stated.
Anyone who feeds trouble to you eats and thus, serves, the same meal.
That armor must be on at all times, not so quick to fight or battle, when by chance, you may find yourself being just an accessory in one’s realm of belief or thinking.
That amazing arrival to understand free will comes with controlled direction; yours to own, but to responsibly navigate.
A sheep does not change or transform into a wolf by simply being around a pack to follow.
One lost from its herd is better than one devoured, never to be saved or found.
