Grip of Group-Think
By Mowahid Hussain Shah
10 years ago in Islamabad, the distinguished former chief of the Pakistan Air Force, the late Air Marshal Zulfiqar Ali Khan, who also served as Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, lent me a book on group-think. Group-think is a trend which can occur within a group of people where, through false consensus, a decision is taken without critical vetting and weighing, and wherein dissenting viewpoints are arbitrarily dismissed. Its net result is sameness of perspective through conformity.
In a recent interview to veteran newscaster Charlie Rose, former US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, while discussing the missteps of President Obama in the Middle East, said: “In the broader context, the President is not as exposed to all the views that he should be getting, in order to make some very tough decisions. …It’s important to get broad experienced viewpoints not just from inside the White House but outside the White House as well.”
In the aftermath of 9/11, the United States found itself entrapped in the quagmire of group-think. Washington’s think-tanks were characterized by monotony. For example, to date, the singular focus on Iran’s nuclear program has artificially magnified the menace of Tehran while conveniently excluding from the discussion any reference to Israel’s nuclear program.
Civil society has failed. In particular, mainstream TV has been infected with subliminal bigotry about terror-based themes where Muslim proponents are both prominent and preeminent. A casual purview of TV shows like “24” and “Homeland” provide ample evidence of the repeated use of violent coercion as a tool of interrogation.
The just-released report from the US Senate on torture is an indictment of US leadership and political culture, which created the enabling toxic environment.
Hollywood, too, has been quick to jump on the bandwagon. The 2013 hit movie, “Zero Dark Thirty”, on the hunt for Osama Bin Laden in effect glorified torture as a necessary utilitarian tool to extract intelligence. The movie was notable for showing repeated use of torture. Even more sickening was the fact that it was nominated for 5 Oscar awards.
50 years ago, William Lederer wrote “A Nation of Sheep”, where he warned of the dangers accruing when Americans choose not to be educated on what is important.
Group-think exacerbates hatred, and societies have been left stranded by its isolating impact.
On a recent plane trip, I met an American young female doctor who had served 1 year in Rwanda, which in 1994 witnessed the genocidal massacre of 1 million Tutsis by Hutus in 100 days. She told me that her take-away message is how easily people can be brainwashed into committing horrific crimes.
Two books by anthropologist Edward T Hall, “The Silent Language” and “Beyond Culture”, discuss how much of a society’s communications are nonverbal, often subconscious, reflecting the society’s culture, and how culture can force an individual to think “that anyone whose behavior is not predictable or is peculiar in any way is slightly out of his mind.”
It is a sobering reminder about the hidden dangers of conformity.
Before going with the flow of group-think, it is wiser sometimes to pause and ponder on its consequences.
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