I sometimes wonder, when I look at the world, why it is that so many people follow the same, seemingly illogical, trends? Why do they jump on the same bandwagons? Why do they adopt the same habits, the same fashions, the same attitudes—like a universal flock of sheep? Are they incapable of thinking for themselves? Are they unable to stand back and take an objective view of things and decide for themselves what is appropriate?

The phenomenon of conspiracy theories has been well explored. Nonsensical, yet seductive statements are broadcast over the social media, and millions enthusiastically embrace and retweet them without taking a moment’s breather to wonder whether there is any truth in them. It would seem that they are a way of protesting about the way of the world, of expressing the general frustration at the imperfections of life, without having to actually analyse the reasons and taking responsibility for them.

The countrywide outbreaks of violence after the recent tragic deaths of three children at the hands of a deranged teenager are the latest example. Mobs of unthinking thugs attacking neighbourhoods, shops, police, anyone who stood in their way, on the spurious reason that it was rumoured to be a Muslim or immigrant inspired incident. A conjecture spread indiscriminately via the social media and adopted by gangs far distant from the community involved while being used as an excuse to indulge their common extremist fury at the world in general.

At a more widespread level, there are numerous examples of the general compulsion to gather in masses. Why, for instance, do thousands of people flock together in the rain to listen to their favourite pop bands and singers, when they can barely see the stage or hear the music? Why do they pay large sums of money and travel vast distances to watch their favoured sports team from the distant back of a gigantic stadium, when they can get a far better view of the game, and furthermore watch slow motion replays and hear expert commentaries, before the TV set in the comfort of their own home? ‘Oh,’ they will tell you. ‘It’s the atmosphere. It’s the fun, it’s the camaraderie.’ No. Actually, it’s the herd instinct.

Let’s take fashion. Specifically, let’s take the example of the commonplace jeans. The origin of this ubiquitous clothing item stems back to France in the mid eighteen hundreds when blue jeans (bleu de Gênes) were invented as a cheap and hard wearing form of trouser for sailors and workmen. These were then adopted by American manufacturers and over the decades were taken up by workers and students of all nations as a practical and affordable workaday clothing. However, the extraordinary thing is that this common, and let’s face it, crude article of clothing is now worn as the standard fashion item for millions across the globe and has been for well over half a century.

One has to ask why? Looked at objectively, jeans are a pretty unattractive adornment. They are usually shapeless, unevenly coloured, and constructed from a coarse denim cloth. To emphasise these qualities, modern jeans are often deliberately faded, ragged, and holed, and the tattier they look, the more expensive they usually are. Is this a deliberate reflection of the general careless mindset of modern generations? At the top end of the scale, many of the fashion houses have succumbed to the trend and produced more sophisticated tailored jeans, which, especially in America, can often be seen worn by business people, along with their Armani jackets, silk shirts and ties, and polished shoes. If ever there was a sartorial discrepancy, this surely is it! Yet the fashion has survived for many decades and shows no sign of disappearing in the way that most fashions do.

To take another example—family transport. I do wonder at the current preference for SUV’s. These lumbering behemoths are expensive, heavy, uneconomical, and relatively unstable. Unless one is a farmer or likes to go on adventure rallies across the Hindu Kush, there seems little point to them except for providing a loftier viewpoint over the roofs of the humble saloon car? For the average driver and family man, what really is the attraction of splashing out on the cost of a Range Rover when you have no intention of roving ranges? It would seem that this is another example of people passively following a trend, rather than deciding for themselves what their most appropriate choice is.

Perhaps the greatest example of communally inspired attitudes is that of religion. Conflicting religious views are the reason for many of the feuds, wars, and atrocities across history, yet all such intense convictions are based on mythology and apocryphal accounts, and such bloody incidents go against the philosophies of their founding fathers. One has to question why the annual pilgrimage of millions of devoted worshippers to such distant sites as Mecca, Lourdes, and Karbala continue, despite the resulting deaths of many of them from heat, exhaustion, and crushing, and little evidence of benefit to anyone.

The examples of mass fidelity to essentially irrational causes and practices are common throughout human history. I question whether homo sapiens is such a sophisticated species after all.