Group Think

Subject: Group think.

When we see on television those atrocious shots of mutilated donkeys crippled by the work they are forced to do, do we reflect on the societies within which they live and the apparent disregard that members of that society seem to have for the donkey as well as apparently condoning the people who are beating the animal.
North Africa is the scene of course and its the same scene that "we" are asked to show compassion for the people living there.
Of course we mustn't be prescriptive, we must judge everything in the prism of our own conscience a conscience formed by our own society and "its" norms.
We are packaged and labelled by that society as a product of the "group think" that passes for free will. When we see the donkey we reach into our collective pocket and donate money on the assumption that our money will do something to assuage  the donkeys suffering. If the collective will of the people, both here and in North Africa were anywhere similar then either you would see donkeys beaten in the streets of Warrington or, you would see more compassion from the people who happen to have tribal differences and currently beat donkeys openly on the street.
But no there is no connectivity and whilst we continue to hold the false dichotomy that all people are the same we will also continue to ask questions of ourselves and the collaboration we are being asked to develop with strangers from this troubled part of the world.
The "libertarian" will round on me asking 'how can I equate a donkey with a person'. Well in this country if you ill-treated an animal in this way you could end up in prison. Society takes a serious view of animal cruelty.
Why then do the societies in the Middle East not take a similar position if we are, as suggested, 'kith and kin' in the libertarian view of this assembly of human beings.
This and so many other things point rather to the differences between us.
The unity is in the mythology that because we belong to a defined species, homo sapiens then there is enough commonality to link us all and demand equality.
What makes us who we are is not the heart or the lungs, nor the vertebrae but the mind which is different from the brain. "We think therefore we are" but what we are is what we think !!
If people think in different ways to ourselves should we automatically give them a seat at the table. Are we not allowed to differentiate as to which person joins us. Can we no longer make these sort of decisions or has the decision making process been taken out of our hands.
It's as much this 'group decision making' which so annoys people, along with labelling individuals if they wish to go against the "group thought"