Group Minds
Group Minds It is common belief these days that people think relatively freely and strive to maintain their own well being because they consider themselves to be independent from others and their thoughts. ... She is the author of an essay called “Group Minds,” which is based on the way people tend to think after joining a group or any kind of social association. ... In her essay, Lessing also mentions “people who remember how they acted in school” and of their regret in recalling how they surrendered to group pressures. My biggest regret from my high school years is how I started out as a non-smoker, yet the group pressure of the popular crowd led me to becoming a chain smoker. ... High school was filled with so many different types of students that followed a certain group and way of thinking. I started out being my own person until I made a friend who introduced me to her group of friends. ... More than the popularity, it was the kids in that group who influenced me into a bad habit that still troubles me. ... This event relates to Lessing’s statement in his essay, “It is the hardest thing in the world to maintain an individual dissident opinion, as a member of a group” (334 Lessing).