Conviction in the Crowd

There's this excerpt from a book (The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater) I read last year -

“This is a war about collective will.

What do we do with the power of the many?

Are we better or worse when we all move together?

Do we wield justice? Do we wield vengeance?”

It had pulled me deep into thoughts and I remember reigning myself back to the book, noting to get back to it later. And that later seems to be today, with all that’s going on right now.

This particular novel’s plot was based on WWII events (so you get the original context), but it made me think in terms of current times.

My mind was stuck on what "will" means in today’s world. Back in the day, up until about the early 2000s, information we processed was gained with an effort and targeted to our interests. There was no algorithm continuously feeding our brains like today (except our parents nagging. That was constant and had a standard algorithm in all households.)

It was really hard to form an opinion back then, because one lacked quick access to knowledge. Information was passed through newspapers, books, published research papers, news broadcasters, word of mouth from experts in that field etc..- no matter what, it would take a lot of time and effort to learn about any topic.

To finally have a will of our own on any matter meant going through a lot of processing and constant testing of our understanding on the matter. We had to be open to sharing our ideas, letting it be questioned, defending our thoughts through facts and so on. When we eventually arrived at a point of hardening our will on the matter, it was ironclad.

Any other random conversation was just that - loose gossip. Not worth forming an opinion, just a means to vent emotions. And even that was brutally cut off when overdone in social setting.

Unfortunately, what dominates various platforms today is just that, different shades of gossip wrapped in blind emotions. Anyone and everyone has become a source or propagator of information. Emotions are being packaged and reshared over and over again until it becomes a fact to someone else in another corner of the world. We are living in a universe where sane folks have to put exclusive effort to shield their minds from such noise. With AI in the mix, it’s getting harder to discern verified facts from hoax.

That is to say, if someone isn’t consciously skeptical, their worldview can slowly become algorithmically curated.

Even if we filter the noise of misinformation or emotionally personalized info; with unlimited access to knowledge these days, it has become a trend to engage in every event/conflict that’s going around the globe. It’s overwhelming for a single mind to process a particular topic in detail and gain enough insight to form an opinion; when it’s distracted with hundred other topics. No one wants to seem ignorant these days, hence people grab information in small 10-second bites.

Like they say, an ignorant person does not know the destination; but a misinformed person has been given the wrong destination.

Seeing how easily individual opinions are shaped today compared to the past, one can imagine what happens when crowds—or entire nations—march behind beliefs built from them.

When the foundation of one’s will is ironclad, the strength of such collective will is unimaginable. It has led to the creation of civilization, the downfall of power, reform of societies, and much more. But when a swarm of wills is built on a foundation of matchsticks, the structure cannot hold—it will either scatter into ruin or go up in flame.

Which begs the question: In today’s society,

What do we do with the power of the many?

Are we better or worse when we all move together?

Do we wield justice or just blind vengeance?

My thought, for what it’s worth: we are doing neither. We lack the conviction to follow either path through to its end.

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