Doris Lessing's Group Minds: Independence Or Obedience?

Independence or obedience?

All human actions and responses are influenced by someone or something. For humans, being independent is an unrealistic claim. Claiming to be a completely free and independent individual sounds naive . To be independent means being free from outside control. Humans claim to be a part of a free society, as free individuals, making independent choices, but they’re wrong. In the article, “Group Minds,” Doris Lessing provides a clear argument against the concept of human’s claim to independence. Lessing’s article is an attempt to make the public aware of outside pressures and the reality of our naive claim to individualism and independence.

Lessing’s title does a clean job of foreshadowing the passage. Those who claim to be completely free, independent individuals, immune to outside influence are often misguided and naive. This seems to be false, but often times humans are driven by group influence. Even the location of our schooling or residence makes us a part of a group. We all

So many are seen giving into the group in which they have decided to follow and often find themselves in regret at some point. So many give in to the obedience of a group, conforming to all ideas big and small, just to fit in. That can all be prevented if people decide to become aware and actually use this information, the knowledge of the human race’s mechanisms, to end blind obedience and make independence a truthful claim. But we can’t just plainly state the natural attraction to obedience to our children and peers, no, we have to teach it through example and word (Lessing 613). No one wants their children to grow up thinking only about how they could please others and agreeing with every majority opinion just to prevent isolation. No one ever tells their kids, “You can only be what someone else wants you to be, not whatever you want, but whatever the group wants,” says no parent