9AM Monday, at the office: I make my way to the kitchen, prepare my oats, and head back to my desk – passing my boss on the way. He scurries to his office and retrieves a packet of oatmeal.
11PM Wednesday, at home: “I don’t know if I should break up with her,” my roommate states. Silent, he awaits my response.
1PM Saturday, on the phone: “How should I respond?” my cousin asks me. He is texting a girl he met last weekend.
Monkey See, Monkey Do
Everyday I notice more and more examples of people living by social queues, a friend’s approval, and others people’s advice. They are essentially deferring their lives to others.
It is too easy to submit. To continue the trend. But are you really living?
We are all too familiar with the man who lives through other people. He has a boring, little life where the most exciting part of his day is listening to his friend’s latest adventure over a coffee. He is easy to recognize. But the man who lives under the influence of other people is not.
His life is structured around the preferences of others. And the scary part is that he doesn’t know.
Reaction vs. Creation
The book The Path of Least Resistance by Robert Fritz is possibly my favorite. It centers around decision making and the idea that you must create your life. Fritz proposes that it is our default behavior to live unconsciously and simply react to life’s circumstances. If you have not read it, I strongly suggest you make it your next book.
His message echoes mine. Reacting is following. Following the norm. Following advice. Expectations. It is taking what life throws at you and allowing that to dictate your path.
Creating is leading. Choosing what you want to do. What you want to create. Where you will go.
The Crown Is Yours
You simply have to put it on. The moment you decide to think for yourself and make your own decisions, you free yourself from the chains of others. You must decide what you want and then consciously choose to obtain it. Don’t fall for the natural trap and submit to society’s expectations (the path of least resistance, if you will).
The beauty of a creation-based lifestyle is that others will naturally gravitate to you. The sheep unconsciously recognize the shepherd. They come to him for advice. They seek his approval. They follow him.
Read More: Dear Mr. Shepard
Thanks. I needed this
Great Post. With so many t.v. shows and movies to dictate what people should do and wear its inevitable that there will be so many sheep and so little individuality in this culture. In today’s society, media is so prevalent in people’s lives that most people (young people especially) are just collections of things or people they model themselves around. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve driven past a high school and seen 5 Justin Bieber look-alikes or a flock of young girls who look like they belong on a Disney channel program. It’s become a habit to follow from a young age and this generation is a prime example of that. These habits continue into adulthood, and by mid-twenties it will become an irreversible vice. I’m exteriorizing these individuals, but I feel its a good guess as to whats going on inside.
My finding is to see everything that has mass appeal with a raised eyebrow. Nothing and nobody should be liked because its “popular”. Pop culture controls us today in ways we’ll never understand, to the point where its become as destructive and mindless as an ancient deity. I know its cliche to say this but, the media is breeding pestilence in our kids and in ourselves.
My point is stop hanging out at the mall, read a fucking book or go kayaking- I don’t know.
Simply put, Followers are afraid to be wrong.
…or afraid to fail at something they know to be right. I’m not sure which is worse.
Great post – a part reflection of what the late Julian Jaynes said in his work about the conscious mind, and Frank Wallace’s ‘Neo-Tech’ concept of man’s inherent ‘mysticism’ (default laziness and reliance on the authority of others to provide guidance).
you can hardly blame men for falling into the follower trap, the only way to have not succumbed to this during childhood would be to one or more strong male figures as primary educators and guiders. we now have the school system which is the antitheses of this. luckily some of us slip through the net, although its not really luck, the system as it is does not just ‘not really work’ for us but it goes so strongly against everything that our personality types demand that we cannot help but opt out – mentally at least).
having been looking into the myers-briggs test thing recently, i posit that a lot of people on here will have similar or the same personality types. in the name of science, take the test and post results.. http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp
I am an INTP, and I totally understand what you mean. I’ve learned that not submitting blindly to the system/Matrix can put many aspects of your well-being in grave danger.
Blind submission is handsomely rewarded, independent actions not blessed by a dominance hierarchy are generally punished, often severely so.
Which leaves independent minded people few options in life.
Do you feel the grasp around your throat? I sure do.
Elaborate please. I understand your general direction of thought, but which specific independent actions for example do you see as being punished?
It can be a simple as not following the vapid pop icons that everyone else in your office follows, and becoming socially excluded as a result, or, as complicated as not filing an income tax return and being severely punished by the KGB/IRS goons.
You can apply it to many situations in your daily life in which you are not allowed to act of your own volition because some harsh punishment stands in the way, arbitrarily placed there by our massas.
the simplicity of a society that has a basic hierarchy with the strongest male at the top allows you a good indicator of where you stand. but picking apart the more complex hierarchy of a western society, the alpha male at the top is the state, but the state is mostly made up of pen-pushers, weak yes men that do not represent strength in any of its forms and exercise their power through passive aggression and threats that they themselves cannot back up without the vast swathes of departments full of more yes men giving their legitimacy a comfy cushion and ultimately force of the police, which they of course, never have to deal with or see.
the simple hierarchy can be compared to that of a small business, the owner is more often than not a legitimate leader demanding respect by virtue of creating something with a vision and putting his balls on the line to get it. people know where they stand and rewards such as promotions will be based directly on performance due to the owner needing the best people in the most important positions, playing games that might piss people off cannot be afforded because people might leave and their accumulated knowledge has value.
i’ve read the 48 laws of power and part of the sentiment of that book is to deal with situations with an ‘anything goes’ attitude, slicing throats and stabbing backs along the way, concealing your intentions with a yes man eagerness to your superiors, and to people trying to beat the system, that is probably the best approach to take and i will respect people from that mindset so much more than a high-horse moral crusader trying to ‘make those evil corporations pay their fair share’. but there must come a time when we realise that the chances we have of beating the system and the rewards for doing so are outweighed by doing something different. i see small businesses as currently the best place for men.
sid waddell, commentating upon eric bristow winning the darts world championship: “when alexander of macedonia was 33 he cried salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer.. bristow’s only 27!” as both alexander and eric did, conquer your own world.
relampago, this may be a directionless rant, but somwhere in there it is related to your comment. i scored as INTJ.
I agree about small businesses. But, the current state of society has forced me to become very mercenary in my thinking. I now see this country as little more than a good place to do business, to make your money (fortunes if you can), then get out of it if other aspects of life are important to you.
The problem with the U.S. is it has sacrificed everything for economic growth. It has given up its culture, the environment, happiness of it’s citizens, all for a larger profit next quarter. I see this as being profoundly myopic and short-sighted, and it’s literally killing the goose that lays the golden egg in the long-run.
Life (and society) needs a more balanced approach, in my opinion. People are not machines. They have other needs which cannot be addressed by more money. (The difference in happiness between a person who makes $5,000 and $50,000 is vast, the difference between $50,000 and $5 million is very small because other factors come into play.)
Not only that, but rampant materialism has turned Western women into little more than adolescents.
So, make as much money as you can while in the U.S., stay out of the consumerist/materialist culture as much as possible (watching almost no TV is a good start), save as much money as you can, then discover that the money you’ve made is 2-5 times more valuable virtually anywhere else in the world.
That, and speaking from personal experience, the women are better and life moves along at a more relaxed pace.
The corporate world and government work show this to be true. Such people are better off owning a business or “owning their job,” like a plumber, electrician, etc.
As an individualist, it pains me to see people so willingly and blindly following dominance hierarchies and persecuting those who do not.
Anglo women are especially bad at blindly following images and ideals presented to them by the media spinmeisters.
It’s easy to see how tyrranies and Hitlers arise when the mass populace thinks this way.
As Reinhold Niebuhr put it, because the masses are so stupid and follow faith rather than reason, necessary illusions must be created to keep them under control.
Unfortunately for us, we can see through the illusions created for the masses, which makes living with such delusions a truly incredulous experience.
But, this also gives us the power to set ourselves free if we focus on liberating ourselves from this paradigm.
groupthink, it’s a hell of a drug
If I take your advice, and purchase and read this book because you said I should, aren’t a sheep following the shepherd?
In other words, would reading “The Path of Least Resistance”, in fact, be the path of least resistance in this case?
I’m creating a lifestyle where I do not allow others to choose the books on my reading list. You may begin flocking to me.
Follow one shepard to avoid following the rest.
Good point and this crossed my mind too. I think the difference between us and the guys he refers to in the article is that we would make a conscious analysis and decision to read the book (or not) as opposed to just buying it on recommendation without thinking.
Good point and this crossed my mind as well. I think the difference between us and the guys he refers to in the article is that we would make a conscious analysis and decision to read the book (or not) as opposed to just buying it on recommendation without thinking.
After reading this article, I think I get the point and am sure I know how I would pursue my own path. Therefore, it is not necessary to read the book.
To say, “I can’t do this because I would be following,” is not thinking, it is just reacting. The point is to understand the meaning of what you are following, not just to follow it blindly. Understand the lessons so that you can make better choices. The point of reading the book is to give you further insight on why you make choices so that you can make better choices in the future.
The problem is many people don’t want to think about why they follow something or why they do not. They don’t want to think at all, just be led. Hence, sheeple.
There is nothing wrong being a follower. Only 1% of humans have the leadership gene, proven scientifically. However, being a follower does NOT mean being a dumb lemming, doing destructive or wicked things whilst following others off a cliff edge. Being a rational and thinking follower is different from being a dumb sheep.
the world is largely led by small minded, insecure nit pickers, who hold their power not with leadership skills, but by keeping other people down….
this is why you have to figure out a way to do your own thing…. NOT because everyone is a natural leader…. but because our leaders are corrupted.
natural leaders are mavericks, that are not often good with details, and they find it very hard in the current system to get leadership roles.
when they do, they are often castigated with legal red tape and brought down….
if you are not a good leader, then find a good leader and play second fiddle…. it takes a good second in command to manage the fine details and move the leader forwards….
Following up on your observations about “small minded, insecure nit pickers, who hold their power not with leadership skills, but by keeping other people down…” which I totally agree with, by the way:
I’m really into Myers-Briggs typology and I find that personality types that are good at being sheep (SJs in particular) are often very successful in business. They simply follow rules, don’t make any waves, and are typically devoid of the capacity to think for themselves. Everything they do is based on groupthink.
To illustrate the SJ persona for those new to Myers-Briggs: “SJs are observant, stable and motivated by a need to maintain security. They are realistic, routinized administrators requiring tasks be completed correctly and that people behave appropriately. SJs make thorough examinations to ensure everything is done according to plan.”
Unfortunately, they apply arbitrary and often senseless rules with Gestapo-like thoroughness, killing creativity and original thought in the process.
They’re very good at being machines that just follow orders, which is why business, the military, and bureaucracies find them so useful.
For example, in my job, I’ve found I hardly have to do any real work at all as long as I don’t question authority, don’t think for myself, and just give my “superiors” what they’re expecting. No more, no less. In other words, just doing things by the book. Never mind about improving the process or finding novel ways of getting the work done.
This can be a soul-crushing way to live (at least for me) in the long-term. Spending 40+ hours a week in a cage is hard, to say the least. Which is why there are those of us who must find ways to strike out on our own and nurture those parts of ourselves that we must neglect by being in the business world.
Ha … yes … I agree … I am always railing about SJs. All of the world’s evils seem to be a product of SJs. They are the one thing you can never fix with any utopian worldview. Gnosticism? SJs don’t care. Art? SJs have no conception. Principles? SJs are mixed on this one. There will always be SJs, so there will always be an unthinking mob. It’s part of the landscape. I believe SJs are about 38% of the population.
Ha … yes … I agree … I am always railing about SJs. All of the world’s evils seem to be a product of SJs. They are the one thing you can never fix with any utopian worldview. Gnosticism? SJs don’t care. Art? SJs have no conception. Principles? SJs are mixed on this one. There will always be SJs, so there will always be an unthinking mob. It’s part of the landscape. I believe SJs are about 38% of the population.
Ha … yes … I agree … I am always railing about SJs. All of the world’s evils seem to be a product of SJs. They are the one thing you can never fix with any utopian worldview. Gnosticism? SJs don’t care. Art? SJs have no conception. Principles? SJs are mixed on this one. There will always be SJs, so there will always be an unthinking mob. It’s part of the landscape. I believe SJs are about 38% of the population.
Ha … yes … I agree … I am always railing about SJs. All of the world’s evils seem to be a product of SJs. They are the one thing you can never fix with any utopian worldview. Gnosticism? SJs don’t care. Art? SJs have no conception. Principles? SJs are mixed on this one. There will always be SJs, so there will always be an unthinking mob. It’s part of the landscape. I believe SJs are about 38% of the population.
Ha … yes … I agree … I am always railing about SJs. All of the world’s evils seem to be a product of SJs. They are the one thing you can never fix with any utopian worldview. Gnosticism? SJs don’t care. Art? SJs have no conception. Principles? SJs are mixed on this one. There will always be SJs, so there will always be an unthinking mob. It’s part of the landscape. I believe SJs are about 38% of the population.
Ha … yes … I agree … I am always railing about SJs. All of the world’s evils seem to be a product of SJs. They are the one thing you can never fix with any utopian worldview. Gnosticism? SJs don’t care. Art? SJs have no conception. Principles? SJs are mixed on this one. There will always be SJs, so there will always be an unthinking mob. It’s part of the landscape. I believe SJs are about 38% of the population.
Ha … yes … I agree … I am always railing about SJs. All of the world’s evils seem to be a product of SJs. They are the one thing you can never fix with any utopian worldview. Gnosticism? SJs don’t care. Art? SJs have no conception. Principles? SJs are mixed on this one. There will always be SJs, so there will always be an unthinking mob. It’s part of the landscape. I believe SJs are about 38% of the population.
Ha … yes … I agree … I am always railing about SJs. All of the world’s evils seem to be a product of SJs. They are the one thing you can never fix with any utopian worldview. Gnosticism? SJs don’t care. Art? SJs have no conception. Principles? SJs are mixed on this one. There will always be SJs, so there will always be an unthinking mob. It’s part of the landscape. I believe SJs are about 38% of the population.
Thanks for pointing out the demographics of SJs. That was an extra piece of the puzzle. I didn’t know they made up that much of the population.
In fact, looking at some stats after I saw your post, I learned SJs make up at least 37% and perhaps as much as 53% of the population which sure explains a lot of the reasons why things are so screwed up in the world.
This simple sentence explains a lot: “SJs trust authority, join groups, seek security, and dream of meting out justice.” Scary indeed when you look at the demographics.
There’s no correct answer to if its better to lead or to follow.
Sometimes its better to follow, sometimes not. Only you can make that assessment based on any given situation.
NEITHER A LEADER NOR A FOLLOWER BE !
Very good post. Never react. Never chase after people, men, women, anything. Create and Be. And hone and perform, and you will get all you seek. And quickly realise all of it means little compared to your own sense of ability to create and form with your own two hands. A man’s strength and his character is the only real damn thing of value in this world.
You work in an office with a boss. Haven’t you submitted and deferred to someone else’s norms already. How is the working-for-others life creative? Tell me what i am missing.