A herd of independent minds

Issue 36: Why "freethinkers" are often conformists; a one-day sale on 'The Power of Us'; anonymity doesn't always produce online trolls; and the complex relation between passion and achievement

A couple of weeks ago we wrote in the Los Angeles Times that, “Two years into the pandemic, we continue to hear constant fights about the fundamental antagonism between being an independent individual and being a good group member. You must be either a ‘freethinker’ or a ‘sheep’!”

Shortly thereafter and right on cue, Donald Trump Junior appeared on Fox News to rail against Americans for “sitting there like sheep” by not rioting in opposition to vaccine mandates.

If only he had read our piece (unlikely, to be sure), Trump the Younger would have known that that the freethinker versus sheep distinction is an illusion, a false dichotomy. He would have read that those who most believe themselves to be unfettered by social convention are often, quite ironically, very firmly in its grip.

Indeed, we argued that individualism might actually be the ultimate form of American conformity:

“The groups we identify with, including our nation, shape our understanding of what it is to be a person. The way…