Topic > Doris Lessing's Group Minds: Independence or Obedience?

You see so many give in to the group they decided to follow and often end up with regrets at some point. Many give in to the obedience of a group, conforming to all ideas large and small, in order to integrate. All this can be avoided if people decide to become aware and actually use this information, the knowledge of the mechanisms of the human race, to end blind obedience and make independence a truthful claim. But we cannot simply clearly state the natural attraction to obedience to our children and our peers, no, we must teach it through example and word (Lessing 613). No one wants their children to grow up thinking only of how others might like them and agreeing with every opinion of the majority just to avoid isolation. No one ever says to their children: “You can only be what someone else wants you to be, not what you want, but what the group wants,” says no parent.