Conformity In David Icke's 'What Makes Good People Do Bad Things'

David Icke, an author, conspiracy theorist, and former football player and sportscaster once said “The human race is a herd. Here we are, unique, eternal aspects of consciousness with an infinity of potential, and we have allowed ourselves to become an unthinking, unquestioning blob of conformity and uniformity. A herd. Once we concede to the herd mentality, we can be controlled and directed by a tiny few. And we are.” Here, Icke is saying that humans often become attached to groups. They do not tend to question what is going on, as long as they feel safe and secure with any group. Humans thrive on the feeling of being included, so much so that they lose themselves and start to become one with their group. They become numb to new ideas different
soldiers of Abu Ghraib start becoming increasingly hostile as one unit. In The Lord of the Flies, Jack eventually takes over most of the island from the original leader named Ralph. When Ralph goes to visit Jack before a storm, thunder strikes. Jack decides to have his group do a special “dance” - a person pretends to be a wild pig in the center of a human circle, well the human circle holds spears and other weapons and mimes killing the “pig”. As Ralph and his friend Piggy join the circle, even though they have never hunted or wanted to, they “were eager to take a place in [a] demented but partly secure society” (Golding 1). Ralph and Piggy, at this point in the novel, were in fear. Jack’s group is the only secure and known part of the island. The boys do not know if they will ever get off the island, but what they do know is that Jack has a tribe, where he is the leader, and the main purpose of this tribe is to form an island society that hunts. As Ralph and Piggy do not have this on their side of the island, they seek to be a part of this group, and feel the safety and not fear the unknown. They want to conform and not have to worry about the mysterious island and how they are going to get food next, and instead have hunters get them food and have a leader tell them what to do. As the group continues to do the “dance”, “some of the [children on the island] started a ring of their own”, and eventually “there was the throb and stamp of a single organism” (1). The circles are their own way of showing they are a group, that they are one. By having similar circles, they are showing their uniformity of the single group. These boys now are following and miming what Jack does, and he has their complete control. They use these circles, each other, and Jack to feel security, when