Jewel Burbidge provides some insight into the psychological term "groupthink" which is evident throughout the whole of our society.
Its usual definition is: "Groupthink, mode of thinking in which individual members of small cohesive groups tend to accept a viewpoint or conclusion that represents a perceived group consensus, whether or not the group members believe it to be valid, correct, or optimal."
Forget about it being seen in "small cohesive groups". We are witnessing massive groupthink on a national and even international scale.
TRANSCRIPT:
(This is derived from an automated process. The video recording is authoritative.)
Okay, now I will start this off with a concept called Group Think. Anyone ever heard of that concept? It's very, very evident on a national and international basis. In this day and age, I've also got a new gizmo that Andrew has given me.
And we all know I'm useless with technology, so be ready for a wild ride. And I, okay, and I, okay, we'll start with this group thing. The definition, it's a phenomenon that occurs when a group of individuals reaches a consensus without critical reasoning or evaluation of the consequences or alternatives. And this is the important part.
It's based on a common desire not to upset the balance of the group. In other words, group think is arrived at by gutless people who will not stand up for what is right. Okay? Very, very common in any corporation.
I used to be a management consultant. I saw it everywhere. And oh boy, was it evident in the public service. Wow. Okay. Now this is standard that you will see in all these lovings that you have in all these corporations. Yes, everybody agrees, agrees, agrees.
But the reality is that what they're really thinking, they will go along with things just to keep the peace and get things done and get out of there. 'cause they can't stand the people around them. If this, it's a phenomenon that is everywhere. We all recognize it, it is happening it this country on steroids with this whole situation, with the Covid management classic group.
Think as an example of this, and this is brought up in many a university course, in many, um, uh, policy, not policy areas. Uh, oh gosh, I'm having a senior's moment. Do forgive me. Um, what are they called?
Faculties there. Thank you. Classic group thing quoted all the time. The Challenger disaster. Some of us are old enough to remember that Challenger disaster, January, 1986, where 73 seconds after launch the challenger shuttle exploded. And all the people on board, hopefully they were evaporated instantly and they knew nothing about it, but there's some possibility that they actually lasted the four minutes that it took the cabin to fly out into the Atlantic Ocean and um, it might have been Pacific, whatever. Um, and hit at 200 miles an hour. So people do not know when they died, but hopefully they died instantly. But it was absolutely tragic. And of course everyone's jaw dropped when that happened. How did it happen?
The cause You ever heard of the talk of the O-rings? This was the cause of the failure of the equipment. What you see on the left there is the shuttle itself on the Left hand side, that great big thing that sticks up higher.
That is the fuel tank to get the, uh, everything up off the, uh, Earth's orbit and to the side. That skinny thing is, uh, the solid rocket boosters is one on each side.
Those solid rocket boosters were manufactured partly at Cape Kennedy and, um, partly in Utah. The reason parts of it were done in Utah was political reasons. Jobs for the boys deals under the table, and some senators wanted some kudos and some money for their state.
So the Utah people got to make some of the components of the solid rocket boosters. So instead of making it all in one place at Cape Kennedy, it was made in parts. And to stick those things together, they had o-rings just like a washer in a tap that those o-rings were 38 feet or 11.6 meters in the circumference. That's, uh, just over three meters in diameter like the, a small bedroom, the size of these O-rings.
And there were only a quarter of an inch thick, 6.4 millimeters thick, really skinny. And there were two of them at each section where a joint, okay, big problem with their behavior under adverse weather conditions. Because what happened and what failed was just one oh ring in one spot, and the secondary one was okay, but one of them failed. And the weather, the estimated launch temperature was 29 degrees Fahrenheit.
Freezing temperature is 32 degrees Fahrenheit. So it was below freezing when that happened. And yeah, 29 3 degrees below freezing. That was not supposed to happen, but it did. And 73 seconds after launch it exploded. How did that happen?
People knew about this, and it still happened. The underlying causes were for months before the launch, the manufacturer's, engineers warned constantly that the O-rings had never been tested below 53 degrees Fahrenheit.
They did not have the equipment or the capacity to test below 53 Fahrenheit. Nobody listens to them. The NASA management, however, was under pressure, lots of pressure. That is another component of group think pressure to come to a decision.
The media was constantly criticizing the delays and there were many reasons for the delays. Just logistical things, whether all sorts of things for delays for the launch, the politics that granted the contracts for the uua. Uh, the contract for parts of the URB to go to the Utah firm was also responsible for it because this thing had to be made aimed parts and it had to be assembled.
Some were assembled and transported, but it was then put together at Cape Canaveral. The one that failed was the one of the ones that was put together at Cape Canaveral. Okay? When they put it all together.
NASA also wanted to mention in President Reagan's State of the Union address to attract more grant money. Because since the days of Nixon, they had been losing a lot of grant money.
The American people were getting bored with it. They were not taking any notice. And, uh, the grant money was starting to dry out. So they wanted more money to do more wondrous things out in space.
Now, Kris call, if you may remember that lady, very famous lady, one of the ones who died, she was a civilian teacher and she was going to broadcast a lesson from space.
It actually had the launch was one of the considerations, was the timing for her to do a lesson from space for her children's, um, classes. You know, little trivial things like that affecting the launch of a space shuttle.
Can you believe it? Yes you can. Yeah, you can believe it. 12 hours before the launch. This is the salient point. The manufacturer's, engineers, after months of saying this is not good, they vetoed it. They said, the weather tomorrow is going to be in the twenties Fahrenheit.
It will not work. You cannot do it. They screamed about it, but NASA pushed the manufacturer's CEO, their boss. He caved in to the pressure from NASA who said, we have got to do this.
It's delayed enough. We'll have egg on our face if it doesn't launch. And so he caved in. He overruled his engineers. NASA's engineers also knew the risks. They agreed with the engineers for the manufacturer.
They signed off on it because of the demands within the decision making about the launch. They said, okay, we'll do it tomorrow. It's untested, so therefore it might be okay. And boom, group think pressure.
An absolutely essential component of group. Think let's think about this situation we have now the covid 19 management. I'll go through this very quickly because we are all very familiar with this.
You have the feature of things to do with the management. Do we have people who are group thinkers and people who are free thinkers, independent thinkers, things like the pandemic definition.
The WHO changed the definition of pandemics from deaths in a country and a certain level, two cases in a country. And that was done just before Covid came.
Say no more. The stats for deaths From covid 19. And the reality was people may have died with covid 19 from underlying causes. We all know about that. Border closures. Oh yes.
I remember a friend telling me that she was at a cafe in Kga and somebody came and said that man over there, I just saw him. He just walked around the tweed heads K and gutter border around the Cape.
And he's come from New South Wales and she was terrified for crying out loud. This is the mentality, okay? Mars, oh, say no Mars, right? Breathing in your own c o two, I think the greenhouse gases must be all right because the c o two's conveying it's here. It's not going up there. We'll be right mate. Lockdowns.
Oh yes, lockdowns. Gotta keep those people locked up. I'm all right. I'm on a pension. I don't go anywhere, so I'm all right, Jack. It doesn't matter that these people have gotta make a living. No, the JAB is a vaccine. I to believe it's a vaccine.
It is an experimental medical test. It is not getting out of stage three of the testing until the end of 2023. And it's not finished testing until 2025. There's been no long-term testing. It is an experiment. It is not a vaccine.
But of course the group thinkers call it a vaccine. Um, jab. Employment Madness. Gosh, we've got a room full of people here. I think we can be talking about that tonight. Obviously they think, well, okay, get a jab, keep your job. What's your problem? No, there's a big problem.
Vaccine passports. Biggie, biggie, biggie. I will not see my, my son and grandchildren in New South Wales again, if this thing gets through. But I think we might be taken to the streets with, I don't know, pitchforks and hammers or something before that.
Restrictions are the new normal. We have to live with this. We just have to just put up with this for the rest of our life. Well, no, sorry, silencing of alternative viewpoints. Look at the media. Look at Facebook, look at people. You can't talk about it.
Group thinkers go along with all of this. I've said from day one, the people who accept this b******t are the ones I'm really angry with. So many people who are in a position in jobs who are forced to do it, to keep their job, to keep, you know, paying their mortgage, feed their kids.
I feel really sorry for them. But the people who applaud these measures are the ones that I've got no time for. My Christmas card list has been reduced dramatically, and it's gonna save me a lot of money. Right?
The sentence of group think, Irving, Janice, Yale University, 1972 first came up with the, the actual symptoms that you can measure, because psychologists love to measure things, right? The, there are three types. The first type is overestimations of the group.
It is power, it's morality, it's kudos, it's bonafides. You know, we are just so special illusions of invulnerability, creating excessive optimism and encouraging risk, taking illusions of invulnerability that it means they're experts. My doctor says so. My chemist says, so what?
They're experts. Yeah, they're invulnerable. You can't question them. Unquestioned belief in the morality of the group because they say, we've gotta do it. So, you know, these are the right people.
These are good people. Look at the media. Do the right thing they say, right, causing members to ignore the consequences of their actions. The second type, it's closed. Mindness, boy, oh boy, we got that on steroids, rationalizing warnings that might challenge the group's assumptions.
How many times have you heard that? You will give them as much information and facts and they just say, oh, yes, but, and then they'll come up with something ridiculous, some nonsense.
Always rationalizing it away. No. Well, I saw it on tv, so it must be true. Stereotyping those who are opposed to the group as weak, evil, bias, spiteful, impotent, or stupid. Have you copped it?
Right? There you go. I am a very proud, stupid person. I will be wearing a yellow star before any of you. I'll probably make some, I might have a little business and sell some yellow star on my chest.
Might have little hats with them as well. Okay? The third type pressures towards uniformity. This is the biggie. Self, self-censorship of ideas that deviate from the apparent group sense. If they start thinking about things, they start thinking about what you might have said or pointed out to them.
They just say, no, no, no. Can't be right. No, I'll just ignore that. I'll keep going. Illusions of unanimity among the group members, because silence is viewed as agreement and they really don't know how other people feel, but they just assume that they're with the, uh, majority direct pressure to conform placed on any member who questions the group couched in terms of disloyalty.
How many times have you heard that? Particularly in the media and mind guards, self-appointed members who shield the group from dissenting information, a k a, the media. And a lot of your friends, they just say no, you cannot talk about. That's politically incorrect.
Doctors have been told officially, you are not allowed to discuss anything about the rollout of the vaccine. Nothing. And they're com, you know, officially gagged and Facebook don't like my posts.
Facebook don't like your posts. Somehow or other, they must just think, I'm so old and dory, they ignore me, but I get away with, I get away with everything. I don't know. They say, oh, she's 71, she's passed it. No, don't worry about it. That's group think.
Those are the symptoms. You see them everywhere. And you see it on a national, um, level group. Think the cure for group. Think very simple, open climate, accountable climate information, sharing data, not, not shutting anybody down. Avoid isolating the group.
This is theory that is based on small groups within the corporation, but the isolation of the group is on a national basis. You, you just, uh, they can't go on Facebook. They can't talk anywhere.
You just gotta keep them away. And you certainly don't get them on radio or tv. You just don't listen to them. Assign members the role of critical value. Add, invite everybody to pick holes in your argument and then you can find out the truth and avoid being too directive.
This is a message for the government. Leave us alone. We're adults. We can make our own decisions, okay? And of course, if you're really smart, you'll come along to Voting Matters, because we talk about truth, reason, and reality.
That is the situation we face everywhere the group think is, I've never seen anything like it. I thought there was contentious disagreement about climate change, but this business is, well, you know, I'm 71. I've never seen anything like it.
Anybody else around about my age experienced anything like this before. It is the most serious situation that we've ever faced in our life. And I tell you what, this next election, wow. Wow, wow. Indeed.
We'll see what happens. All betts are off as to what is going to happen, but I should imagine there'll be a massive protest vote.
