But though group security can bring comfort and belonging, it can also perpetuate injustice and ignorance. The understandable craving for affection and status within a group – and what esteemed physicist and author Leonard Mlodinow claims is the deep need for an “affinity with a group identity” – often leads to people immersing and identifying themselves in only a few social networks.
And so we have group-think: too little interaction, and thus empathy for, other groups. Instead, a deep internalisation and fierce defence of one’s own group norms.
And then that huge elephant standing in every pub, every supermarket, every train station, and soon itself to be wrapped in plain packaging if the nannies get their way was completely missed. Maybe he is completely unaware of it? I don't know.
The sad truth is that millions of adults in this country simply do not care or they are unaware that their freedoms are being taken away, one by one. The media doesn't care, either. Because when this country finally does descend into that Orwellian utopia, the media will still be there, pumping out government-approved propaganda. I am vaguely reminded of this quote:
"And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed-if all records told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'" - George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 3
It was just a blog post, though. So I won't be too hard on this kid for missing the elephants, in all of the rooms. And really, it's my fault for having any expectations at all. Which is why I so rarely read or watch the news.
Except for late at night when Babita is on, but I'm not really paying that much attention to the news.
