Fight against the disease of following the crowd

In Vietnamese, "following along" means following, imitating, relying on others unconsciously or to please others or due to lack of knowledge, lack of courage, etc. When saying someone follows along, it means a negative attitude, lack of independent thinking, just "following along, talking behind the scenes", etc. and that is a bad habit that needs to be overcome.

Illustration: Internet

However, it is necessary to clearly distinguish between agreement, consensus, support, and encouragement of a good idea, a correct idea, or a new, positive factor, which is completely different from following suit.

In life, we can easily see some people who follow the crowd: When attending conferences, they do not think independently or think out loud. They rarely speak first. When someone speaks in a way that seems “pleasing to the ear” – especially if the speaker is a leader, has an important position or when there are benefits for themselves, they show great agreement, wanting the whole group to follow that opinion. There are also more “sophisticated” people, they find ways to speak along, to agree, both to please the leader and to gain benefits for themselves. When voting, they choose the safe solution of following the majority, regardless of right or wrong.

People who are sycophants do not dare to frankly express their thoughts and perceptions. They are afraid of being judged and criticized, they do not have enough courage to defend and take responsibility for their opinions. They are "neutral", "defensive", they find ways to avoid very cleverly to keep safe! In fact, sycophants are the disease of weak people, lacking in qualifications, abilities and qualities, "going with the flow". People who sycophants lack self-respect and self-esteem. Even worse, they will fall into opportunism and flattery.

Nowadays, the number of people participating in social networks is very large. There are also many phenomena of following the crowd. While the majority of people are always actively working, studying, exploring, and creating to overcome difficulties and rise up in life, there is a group that does not use their brains but follows, imitates, and follows ways of thinking, business trends, and lifestyles that they consider "fashionable". Unfortunately, a group of young people imitate and follow the voices, trends, and hybrid, strange lifestyles,... in a "carefree", blind, and unconscious way. The most dangerous thing is when many people follow, agree with the distorted views and wrong perceptions of discontented, reactionary elements,...

Following the crowd is a contagious disease! Out of fear of “burning their mouths with fire”, they choose the safe way. If one person is safe and benefits, others will follow suit. A group - especially a leadership group - that is “unfortunate” to have many people like this will find it difficult to “attack”.

Every cadre, party member, and union member needs to actively self-study, self-train, and constantly improve their awareness in all aspects to be confident, affirm their own abilities and intelligence, stand on their own two feet, and speak from their own heart and mind, which is practically fighting against the disease of following the crowd.