Groupthink

After watching Erykah Badu's video for Window Seat, and listening to the words she speaks at the end, it made me think how much we, as a society, tend to conform. Groupthink is a kind of conformity in which what is popular in a cohesive in-group becomes so dominant, so the norm, that it overrides appraisal of an alternative. In other words, individuality is looked down up while conformity is accepted and reinforced. In the video Erykah Badu stripped herself of everything holding her back, of everything making her like everyone else, of everything stopping her from being her true self...this was done in the form of her literally stripping and walking down the street. First off, the body is banging lol...but beyond that the concept was bananas. I mean imagine what it would be like if we could free ourselves from the social cobweb that traps us and keeps us from reaching our full potential. Think about it, by conforming to social norms instead being our individual selves and going against the grain, we are ultimately allowing society to dictate our actions and, even worse, limit our minds. So often we, myself included, are afraid to go against what is popular because we fear that rejection, we fear being part of the out-group--as if being part of the out-group is punishment for doing something different. But why do we fear being different? Because society tells us that it's wrong.  At the end of the video, Badu is shot and the word "groupthink" spills onto the ground. Her character was assassinated after stripping down and being noticed for her individuality. Wow individuality leading to character assassination...who'da thunk it? The sad thing is that it's true...we are put down, pushed to the side, and dismissed when we choose to go against what is accepted and expected and, instead, allow ourselves to be free and live freely. Think about it.

"Sometimes you have to forgo doing what's popular in order to do what's right."

~ Kidd