Quote
corboy
Social psychologists have demonstrated that in groups, the sense of personal responsibility tends to diminish and that in groups people do things they often might not do if by themselves.
Irving Janis, one of the early social psychologists came up with term, 'groupthink'
The term used by social psychologists studying groups is 'diffusion of responsibility'--as in when you are part of a group, it is easy to make the assumption that if something seems wrong, someone else will take care of it. This was vividly demonstrated when Miss Kitty Genovese screamed for help while being murdered and none of the many persons in nearby buildings who heard her screams failed to call 911. These persons each assumed someone else would make the call and the result was--no one did.
And groups also exhibit a tendency called 'risky shift'--as in a group is more likely to do something risky that each person would, by his or herself refrain from doing.
So groupmind can have its dangers and a group, listening to an aggressive leader, could well do things that a person by him or herself would refuse to do.
So group mind, far from being enlightened, can have its dangers.
It is much too easy for a troubled and aggressive leader to turn a group into a mob.
And Buddhist groups can be just as vulnerable to group think as any other group if
Thanks Corboy, I think that this debate has struck at the heart of questions about what constitutes a cult. Of course once a malleable group has formed it is possible for it to be manipulated into a mob mentality, but I don't believe that DWB has yet reached that stage, and I like to think that Ole Nydahl is at least genuine, albeit misguided.
Of course there will be instances of cults being formed deliberately by individuals with ulterior motives, but my experience of DWB is that cult like behaviour has emerged despite the good intentions of those in control.
What interests me in this situation is the emergent behaviour of the group;
Water is made up of H2O, and yet neither hydrogen nor oxygen have the properties of wetness...
Equally in DWB, there are elements of Buddhism and elements of thuggery and prejudice, and yet it is only when they are bound together by the belief system that they become dangerous and cult-like.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/13/2010 07:47AM by suenam.