The Emporer Has No Clothes

I think I have mentioned the Dilbert Blog before. Scott Adams, who is the creator of Dilbert keeps a daily blog on a variety of topics. A day or two back he wrote a highly entertaining piece on Atheism and Agnosticism. It was one of those pieces that makes you think too - I think he referred to it as Philsotainment.

In response to his piece, the caretaker of the About.com site for Atheism and Agnosticism wrote a response. Scott's reponse to that was a piece about how people with certain view points get very defensive when anyone raises questions about their beliefs. He pointed out a few flaws in the response, and then 'challenged' the author to defend them. He finished with a quote, in reference to what kind of response he was expecting "Dance, Monkey, Dance"

Well the Monkey danced!! And it got me thinking about 2 characteristics that we seem to have as humans, which are kind of related.

The first is the "Emporer has no clothes" mentality. We seem to get ourselves into groups where the assumption is made that we need to follow the direction of the group. The problem is that when the group starts to go down the wrong path, everyone is afraid of causing the destruction of the group, and so no one mentions the thing that will likely destroy the group anyway.

The second is the idea that everyone needs to think the way we do. "I believe this, so if you don't you're an idiot" What's up with that? We all have our own opinions, it's what makes us unique, and variety is the spice of life. The problem is when you take your opinion and feel that you need to impose it on others, or that it needs to be defended to the death. It's your opinion... No one can take it from you.. Quit taking yourself so seriously and get on with enjoying your life.

Of course that's just my opinion! But you might not think that way... That's OK, in fact, I encourage it, especially if you want to post some comments :-)