The Stupidity of Crowds

A colleague of mine was telling me of a book he was reading entitled “The Wisdom of Crowds”. Now, I haven’t read the book, but knowing what I do of humanities foibles I am already dubious of this books premise. Last night I was watching a television show about North Korea which made me think of this book. The closed and paranoid government of Kim Jong Il had agreed to a rare opportunity for a western journalist to visit the country. What I saw was mind blowing! I had always wondered how the Germans could have been duped by Hitler, and in this example of North Korea, it is painfully clear. There is a recipe of sorts you can follow which is in part: 1) Create fear of outside influences 2) Control the media 3) Tightly control borders 4) Dish out rewards and punishment capriciously 5) Beat the people into subservitude, preferably through poverty and famine 6) Take credit for everything that goes right and deny that anything goes wrong.

In North Korea the people are very poor. If you do something against the government, your whole family is sent to prison camps. Everything is against the government. People are punished for hunting mice to eat because there is nothing else. Young boys fought over a corn kernel they found in a cows shit so that they could eat it, so desperate is their plight. In the media there is only good news of the Great Leader’s doings. You must watch these shows ( if you have TV ). The police come around to ensure that you are only reading and seeing appropriate, government approved, media. Everyone has pictures of the Great Leader in their home and larger than life portraits and statutes adorn every building and village square. You must always thank the Great General for what you have, as we here may say grace before a meal. The journalist was allowed in because she was with a small contingent of South Korean’s coming to the country to provide humanitarian aid; specifically optical surgery. Over the course of several days a doctor performed cataract surgery on 1,000 people, many of whom had been blind for years. When they could see, the first thing they did was to prostrate themselves at the feet of the Great Leaders photograph and thank him for their restored sight. Thank him! No one thanked the doctor! The doctor had all his patients waiting in a large auditorium and each would get up and do this “I can see” dance and then collapse under the Great Leaders photograph while the assembled throng cheered exuberantly. If there exists a better example of brain washing, I have yet to see it. I truly believe that people believed what they were saying.

So, where is the wisdom of crowds? After seeing what was happening in North Korea, my thoughts went to my own government. How do we know what they say and do is the truth? We don’t and we should always be suspicious. Question authority! It is my duty as a free person to criticize my government ( not just the feds either, state and local governments count too, this is where tyranny often starts, at home ). The alternative is all too scary and all too real. I wont accept a diminishment of liberty. Therefore, we all must be on constant guard.