Letters From Facebook Jail: Day 11

Nearly two centuries ago, Charles Mackay wrote a book called The Madness Of Crowds, which described the way crowds are capable of falling prey to manias, fads, and the leadership of demagogues who persuade them to commit to the most absurd ideas.

It is undeniable the depths of folly to which unthinking mobs of people can fall. The Salem Witch Trials, The Red Scares, and every major market bubble stand as testaments to groups of people surrendering their individual common sense to the momentum of a mob that seems to move in an unthinking fashion. The fact that Mackay’s book has been in publication for so long shows how aware we are of this flaw.

A book that is less well known is James Surowiecki’s The Wisdom Of Crowds, published in 2004. This book could not have been written much earlier in history because the world was not ready to latch onto the idea he puts forth. To quote from the dustcover, “James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea: Large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant—better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.”

This is a rather radical notion to even conceive of, that the masses are better at guiding society than an elite few. The history of civilizations is one of great people guiding their nations through important moments. It was not until Howard Zinn published A People’s History Of The United States that someone was willing to put forth the idea that history should deal with the lives and interests of the ordinary people. Nearly every society that has existed with a written language has been one with a hierarchical structure. Although monarchy and aristocracy were gotten rid of by the American Revolution, the unconscious mindsets of long-ingrained ways of doing things were not so lightly tossed aside. It is hard to rid yourself of mindsets when you are not even conscious of them. Much of what influences the way humans behave occurs at the subconscious level.

Humans have evolved an intelligence beyond any other in the animal kingdom. But in possessing such an intelligence, and in identifying so closely with that self-aware intelligence, we tend to forget it did not replace the brain of evolutionary ancestors but more or less placed itself atop of more primitive aspects of our brains. Those less sophisticated, more primitive ways of relating to the outside world still not only function but have an integral role in the way we deal with others and with society at large.

It is hard to see it in ourselves, but we can see these other kinds of intelligence at work when we observe other species interacting or working together as a community. We are told that birds and fish have an incredible ability to find specific breeding grounds far away, we can watch a colony of ants working together without requiring managers or politicians, can see dogs learning about each other merely by sniffing one another. There is genuine intelligence, one might even say wisdom, in creatures far less sophisticated than ourselves. Here’s the thing: the animals themselves aren’t even aware of the way they are communicating one with another, could not explain the way their relationships and societies work. The only thing we need concern ourselves with here, is that they do.

And human beings behave in many of the same ways, communicating and giving instructions on sub-conscious levels. To read Desmond Morris’s The Naked Ape is to have the veneer of sophistication peeled away from our perception of ourselves in order to see how much we behave like our simian relatives.

There is a sophisticated way humans interact which we are for the most part unaware. And that’s okay. We need not understand it anymore than an ant or a salmon, we need only calmly observe as we let it do its thing.

This may sound like a mystical idea, and in a sense it is. Perhaps what people have referred to as mystical experience has been the tapping into this subconscious but genetically innate way of interacting with each other. And as can be seen in The Wisdom Of Crowds, science is increasingly discovering that large groups of people putting their two cents in on a given problem can actually predict outcomes or devise strategies better than even the greatest experts in a given field.

Which brings me back to the central focus of my thoughts on communication: social media and the need for open and honest conversation on the internet. While the science is not yet in on this relatively new line of study, the potential is great enough that this approach should be thoroughly explored. And the internet is an amazing new way for humanity to communicate with each other on a scale never before imagined. My personal experience has been that the ability of people to change the lives of others they have never met and who they live far from is nothing short of amazing. The internet has provided a way for individual people to ask a question of utmost importance to them to total strangers and have many caring people give useful and even life-changing advice.

But let us not forget the madness of crowds, which is an undeniable potential danger. There is much room for mischief when we speak online with unknown people. How can we tap into the wisdom of crowds while shielding ourselves from the madness of crowds? The difference between madness and wisdom is that madness is led by strong emotion, whereas wisdom exists in calmness and the feeling that you do not need to control things. Learn to recognize that when you are feeling strong emotions, you are most likely slipping into madness. Learn to understand that so long as you are able to detach yourself from turmoil, you leave yourself open to wisdom.

Closely associated with emotional thinking is ego. Perhaps the two are inseparable. So long as you feel the need to assert your ego into a conversation, your emotions will inevitably flair up. So long as you view a discussion as a battle to be won, and others as foes to be defeated, ego will be served.

Be aware not only when you feel emotion and ego within yourself but also when you spot it in the narratives of others.There are people, those driven by ego, who will attempt to make social media an extension of the hierarchical society that still exists today, a society that is an echo of the authoritarian, aristocratic, and monarchical past from which we are still freeing ourselves. 

Indeed, that is why the freedom of social media is under attack at this moment, because it presents a very fundamental threat to those who now rule in the place of those who were once kings and queens. It is not merely an intellectual argument against hierarchy, it hits deeply into the visceral, subconscious level of the power structure. Those that rule, which is to say, those who feel it is their right to sit above humanity as a whole, cannot help but feel threatened by that, and they will forcefully react against it. They will warn you against the madness of crowds. It is your job to find the wisdom that exists in the mass of humanity sharing their unique ideas, opinions, perspectives, and their desire to make things work. Remember, just like other societies of animals, we are biologically programmed to make the system work.

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