Is Blind Faith in the Crowd Reducing People's Ability to Think for Themselves?
In front of the massive dormitory complex that the author lives in seaside Tokyo, there is a pedestrian crossing that leads to the park connecting the complex with one of the nearest metro stations. Given that relatively few people uses the pedestrian crossing, it is not automatically activated. Only by pressing the button on a pole next to the crossing would the streetlight turn green, allowing people to cross. Without pressing button, the light will remain red forever. The bright red button is quite visible, located conveniently right next to the curbside below the pedestrian light itself, with a bright yellow box with a human drawing.
Yet, often when the author finds himself waiting for a long time in front of the said pedestrian crossing. Before he arrived, another dozen people have already been patiently waiting on both sides of the crossing. Impatient with the long wait, the author looks at the red button, noticing that the yellow box still denotes the pre-pressed "please press the button" sign, rather than the post-pressed "please wait" sign. The dozen people standing right next to the red button has been standing there for quite some time, all the while simply assuming the first person to wait already pressed the button.
Japan is one of those places where common people tend to highly trust others as well as authorities to do the logical right thing for the individual and public good. Only during times of extraordinary crisis does any suspicions otherwise occur, and even those suspicions tend to be quite short-lasting and not permanently damaging to social norms and institutions of public trust. But occasionally that sense of trust is so blind that people find themselves incapable of expressing any visible signs of suspicion at others, if only just to confirm whether what is supposed to be good is actually completed as expected.
As the simple example of the big crowd not pressing the pedestrian crossing button illustrates, such blind faith in the ability of the general public to always do what is supposed to be good falls apart when the person normally tasked to do the right thing is incapable or simply forgets to do that thing. The neglect does not need to be mal-intentioned. Surely, the first person who stood at the pedestrian crossing also wants to cross the road as soon as possible, so he has every reason to press the red button. S/he simply forgot, perhaps not realizing the need to press or too focused on playing with his/her smartphone.
The problem here lies with everyone else who comes after the first person waiting at the pedestrian crossing. For the second person there, it takes literally no effort to stand next to the first person and take a quick glance at the yellow box, just to make sure the "please wait" sign is there. Yet, the second person blindly assumes the first person, so patiently and confidently waiting for the light to turn green, already did it. The third person assumes the same of the first two people, and so on. By the time the tenth person comes around, the crowd is already so big that it is impossible for the person to check the yellow box.
So the blind wait continues, until someone in the range of the yellow box becomes so impatient with the long wait and decides to look at the box for the first time. Angry at other people not noticing the button has not been pressed, s/he would press it, while others would slightly smile and shrug off the negligence of the crowd. By the end of the day, perhaps no one would think of the incident as anything memorable and worthy of anything beyond an amusing 30-second story to tell at the dinner table. It seems just as much a good story of law-abiding nature of Japanese people as of their slight aloofness.
However, it is dangerous to be so quickly dismissive of something as small as an aloof crowd in front of the pedestrian crossing. The fact that no one questions the first person at the crossing speaks volumes about how the public's blind trust in existing structures have led to their increasing inability to think for themselves. By blinding trusting others who are situational leaders (in this case the first person at the crossing) and just follow the behavior of the leaders, people have gradually lost their critical thinking abilities, replacing the idea of having their own thoughts with unquestionable reliance of those of others.
Such tendencies are harmful to the democratic society that Japan happens to be. Democracy holds leaders accountable through critical thinking on the part of each and every individual. Each person must always be ready and active in questioning the thinking of the leaders and act against incapable leaders when the leaders' thinking goes against public conviction. Yet, if people simply forego thinking for themselves and blindly assumes the leaders' convictions as must be good for the general public, then democracy exists in name only. Leaders are given complete legitimacy as long as they do not overtly and visibly hurt the public's interests.
It is not far-fetched to argue that the Japanese general public's tendencies to blindly accept leadership of others without instinctual doubts has broad implications for the country's political future. Visionary young political leaders, faced with a sheepish public all too willing to keep silent and not think for themselves, would not be content just gliding along safely. The blind faith of the general public allows politicians to harness legitimacy granted by a content general public to push personal agendas, sugarcoated with a sense of how such agendas can be good for all. If the public do not think critically to see beyond the sugarcoating, such politicians can wreck havoc on the country's future, no matter how stable it seems to be today.
Yet, often when the author finds himself waiting for a long time in front of the said pedestrian crossing. Before he arrived, another dozen people have already been patiently waiting on both sides of the crossing. Impatient with the long wait, the author looks at the red button, noticing that the yellow box still denotes the pre-pressed "please press the button" sign, rather than the post-pressed "please wait" sign. The dozen people standing right next to the red button has been standing there for quite some time, all the while simply assuming the first person to wait already pressed the button.
Japan is one of those places where common people tend to highly trust others as well as authorities to do the logical right thing for the individual and public good. Only during times of extraordinary crisis does any suspicions otherwise occur, and even those suspicions tend to be quite short-lasting and not permanently damaging to social norms and institutions of public trust. But occasionally that sense of trust is so blind that people find themselves incapable of expressing any visible signs of suspicion at others, if only just to confirm whether what is supposed to be good is actually completed as expected.
As the simple example of the big crowd not pressing the pedestrian crossing button illustrates, such blind faith in the ability of the general public to always do what is supposed to be good falls apart when the person normally tasked to do the right thing is incapable or simply forgets to do that thing. The neglect does not need to be mal-intentioned. Surely, the first person who stood at the pedestrian crossing also wants to cross the road as soon as possible, so he has every reason to press the red button. S/he simply forgot, perhaps not realizing the need to press or too focused on playing with his/her smartphone.
The problem here lies with everyone else who comes after the first person waiting at the pedestrian crossing. For the second person there, it takes literally no effort to stand next to the first person and take a quick glance at the yellow box, just to make sure the "please wait" sign is there. Yet, the second person blindly assumes the first person, so patiently and confidently waiting for the light to turn green, already did it. The third person assumes the same of the first two people, and so on. By the time the tenth person comes around, the crowd is already so big that it is impossible for the person to check the yellow box.
So the blind wait continues, until someone in the range of the yellow box becomes so impatient with the long wait and decides to look at the box for the first time. Angry at other people not noticing the button has not been pressed, s/he would press it, while others would slightly smile and shrug off the negligence of the crowd. By the end of the day, perhaps no one would think of the incident as anything memorable and worthy of anything beyond an amusing 30-second story to tell at the dinner table. It seems just as much a good story of law-abiding nature of Japanese people as of their slight aloofness.
However, it is dangerous to be so quickly dismissive of something as small as an aloof crowd in front of the pedestrian crossing. The fact that no one questions the first person at the crossing speaks volumes about how the public's blind trust in existing structures have led to their increasing inability to think for themselves. By blinding trusting others who are situational leaders (in this case the first person at the crossing) and just follow the behavior of the leaders, people have gradually lost their critical thinking abilities, replacing the idea of having their own thoughts with unquestionable reliance of those of others.
Such tendencies are harmful to the democratic society that Japan happens to be. Democracy holds leaders accountable through critical thinking on the part of each and every individual. Each person must always be ready and active in questioning the thinking of the leaders and act against incapable leaders when the leaders' thinking goes against public conviction. Yet, if people simply forego thinking for themselves and blindly assumes the leaders' convictions as must be good for the general public, then democracy exists in name only. Leaders are given complete legitimacy as long as they do not overtly and visibly hurt the public's interests.
It is not far-fetched to argue that the Japanese general public's tendencies to blindly accept leadership of others without instinctual doubts has broad implications for the country's political future. Visionary young political leaders, faced with a sheepish public all too willing to keep silent and not think for themselves, would not be content just gliding along safely. The blind faith of the general public allows politicians to harness legitimacy granted by a content general public to push personal agendas, sugarcoated with a sense of how such agendas can be good for all. If the public do not think critically to see beyond the sugarcoating, such politicians can wreck havoc on the country's future, no matter how stable it seems to be today.
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