Welle (2008). This film tells the story of a group of high school
students in 1990’s Germany who go to a history lesson on
Autocracy. The teacher is a punk rock kind of guy who is a bit
miffed that he didn’t get to teach the Anarchy history class.
When he starts to discuss autocracy with the students they tell him
that they already know what autocracy is, we know it’s bad and
it couldn’t possibly happen again i.e. we are bored of hearing
about it. The next day the students arrive to find the classroom
rearranged into orderly rows of desks, desks are assigned to each
student and new rules have been implemented in the classroom. No
talking without permission, sit at attention because this allows you
to breath deeply and feel better, stand up when answering a question
and ask it in as few a words as possible…and so begins a
journey that will answer the question “do you really think it
can’t happen again?”
For my wildcard experiment I thought I would try to recreate some of
the aspects of this experiment in class through the use of common
symbols, group exercise and ritualistic chanting of slogans. I want
to do this because I want to demonstrate how easy it is to get sucked
into these kinds of movements and also to discuss with the class how
many movements use these techniques. Outward Bound is one such
organisation. Firstly, they use the technique of forming specific
groups and then make the groups self disciplining. This is done by
telling the group that each member must check on the other members to
make sure that the group as a whole make it to each exercise and that
no one is left behind. The implication of this is that if any
individual fails the group fails which is a clever way of making a
group self disciplining. Groups are given specific names and are
encouraged to form group identities that are backed up with shared
stories. One exercise involves making a theatre production that
demonstrates the group’s values in the form of a mythological
story. As you can see these are common features of many movements.
As a participant in the Outward Bound experience I lapped this up and
even agreed to keep secret exactly what goes on in the camp. I’m
not saying that Outward Bound are trying to create an army of
fascists out in the bush and then sending them back to infiltrate the
business world, but what I am saying is that if a movement has a
cause that is less noble that what Outward Bound are doing then the
techniques of building loyalty to a movement are much the same.
Why am I doing this as my wild card? Because I want to raise the
awareness in the class of exactly how easy this is to do, what the
look out for and to always be sceptical. I am a typical generation X
seventies baby, over educated, under utilised, paranoid and sceptical
of everything. For me to take a step back and analyse what leaders
are doing, how they are doing it and what their message means is a
natural state. What I hope to achieve through doing this exercise in
class is get people thinking about the movement to which they belong
and asking questions about what they do, how they do it and what the
implications of their message are. I would hate for anyone to
suddenly drop out of their church social club or anything as a result
of this heightened awareness but I think it’s important for
people to be able to recognise the signs.
A lot of people have been willingly sucked into all sorts of
movements over the history of humanity, some good and some not so
good. To me the issue seems to be that humans are instinctively
programmed to do this and that’s something that some leaders
seem to be able to recognise and manipulate. Way back at the
beginning of this journey in discussion paper one I put forward the
proposition that leadership has instinctive elements to it. I think
that this kind of group mentality is part of that idea and it’s
worthy of further study. Nature itself seems to encourage humans and
lots of other animals to join groups, to follow the leader of the
group, to make the group strong by rejecting outsiders and to defend
the group. Part of this is about natural selection, propagation of
the species and basic survival. My belief is that this is a powerful
force that we as humans are powerless to resist without a deep
understanding of ourselves and our values. I would like to think
that only the unsophisticated can be manipulated by these instinctive
tendencies but the fact of the matter is that some very intelligent
people have willingly joined some pretty horrifying movements in the
past.
I will consider this experiment a success if I have taught just one
person to take a look at what’s going on around them and
thought about the question “is this what I really believe?”
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