Climate Change: The Perils of Groupthink

What is most frustrating about the current situation surrounding Anthropogenic Global Warming is the "oh so obvious" level of "groupthink" that is occurring. I was familiar with this proven psychological phenomenon, but it had been quite a while since I read anything about it, so I decided to do a little refresher research on Google.

Notice the following symptoms of "groupthink" :

1. Illusions of invulnerability creating excessive optimism and encouraging risk taking.
2. Rationalizing warnings that might challenge the group's assumptions.
3. Unquestioned belief in the morality of the group, causing members to ignore the consequences of their actions.
4. Stereotyping those who are opposed to the group as weak, evil, biased, spiteful, disfigured, impotent, or stupid.
5. Direct pressure to conform placed on any member who questions the group, couched in terms of "disloyalty".
6. Self censorship of ideas that deviate from the apparent group consensus.
7. Illusions of unanimity among group members, silence is viewed as agreement.
8. Mind guards — self-appointed members who shield the group from dissenting information.

Now, for those of you not familiar with this blight on truthful and consensual human progress, here is a brief portion of an excellent Wikipedia article on the subject:

Groupthink is a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. Individual creativity, uniqueness, and independent thinking are lost in the pursuit of group cohesiveness, as are the advantages of reasonable balance in choice and thought that might normally be obtained by making decisions as a group.[1] During groupthink, members of the group avoid promoting viewpoints outside the comfort zone of consensus thinking. A variety of motives for this may exist such as a desire to avoid being seen as foolish, or a desire to avoid embarrassing or angering other members of the group. Groupthink may cause groups to make hasty, irrational decisions, where individual doubts are set aside, for fear of upsetting the group’s balance. The term is frequently used pejoratively, with hindsight.

Once I began thinking about what is going on with the "Church of Global Warming", it became apparent that this hoard mentality is also pervasive in many other areas of our world, including the economy, medicine, world government, etc. After a great deal of thought, it became evident just how rare it is to find a group of people who can come to a truly unbiased consensus, based strictly on the complete set of known and provable facts.

Even here on ATS it seems to be a rampantly egregious occurrence, for rare indeed is the thread that is void of ad hominem attacks and patronizing quips from "religious zealots" posing as scientists. How common it is for someone to take time and put together a thread, only to have it summarily shot out of the water by the "priests of collectivism."

If you are so inclined, take the time to read the article on "groupthink" in Wikipedia. You will see that all the symptoms of this proven psychological phenomenon have been permeating the scientific world, particularly in this field of climate change. Obviously, if the science was so cut-and-dry you would not have other brilliant scientists dissenting, and dissent is the MOST VALUABLE feature of the scientific method, for only through that painful process of resolving dissent can we truly arrive at unbiased truth.

The fact that a green world would be highly advantageous over this present hydrocarbon world does not justify the destruction of the scientific process, for if we lose that, we have lost the one thing that science has over politics and religion... the ability to arrive at truth by way of honest and open debate of the FACTS.

Excellent article on Groupthink



[edit on 7-12-2009 by downisreallyup]

[edit on 7-12-2009 by downisreallyup]

This subject of "groupthink" is really quite relevant to what is happening so much in this world of ours. If one looks carefully, you will see evidence of it everywhere, and this is really not a good sign for humanity's progress.

I found a great blog that relates to this topic:

dumbing-down-of-humanity.blogspot.com...

Several videos are posted describing the process by which the population is dumbed down and their opinions molded.

It also describes the role that the tax exempt foundations have played in this scheme. It's very interesting stuff.