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Essay 4 english Final

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Austin Chambers Mrs. Lux ENGL 1020-13 April 4, 2015 Follow the Leader The ideas of the many do not always correspond to the beliefs of the individual. One can always refer to the old saying, “If your friend jumped off of a cliff, would you jump too?” This thought process is known as groupthink which is discussed on the website, Psychologists for Social Responsibility, Irving Janis broke groupthink up into eight different parts. Three of these are, belief in inherent morality, stereotyped views of out-groups, and direct pressure on dissenters. The ideas of groupthink are present in the story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, a small town in which every year a person from the town is chosen to be stoned so that the survivors can have a …show more content…

They so strongly believe that because it what was the social norm and it was what everyone else was doing that being hateful and racist was morally acceptable just because it was legal. Stereotyped views of out groups are the “negative views of an enemy that make effective responses to conflict seem unnecessary.”(psysr.org) In “The Lottery,” Old Man Warner was told of how some of the villages have decided to give up the lottery or are at least talking about doing so. Upon hearing this, Old Man Warner exclaims, “Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves.” Anyone who speaks out against it are considered a “Pack of crazy fools” as Warner puts it. King begs for a civil and peaceful resolution to the unjust laws and unfair treatment of African Americans. But, as history shows, the clergymen were not going to have anything to do with that. King says that he is trying to do this in the best way possible but it will not seem that way, “In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law… One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty.”(par. 12) Direct pressure on dissenters is when “members of a group are put under pressure

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