MEN AND SHEEP

Northern Advocate, 28 September 1926, Page 4

MEN AND SHEEP

It has been often said that people are very much like sheep in so far as imitative propensities are concerned. There is much to justify such an accusation. If it were not for the public’s readiness to “follow the leader” the promoters of “wild cat” ventures,for instance, would not so easily ‘secure investors. If a promoter can induce a few well-known people to head his list the rest is comparatively easy. Away go the public, oblivious of the real prospects of the venture, and the tide carries off increasing numbers as it rises. In reverse order, it is found that solid propositions are frequently ignored by the public simply because a leader cannot be secured. The same sheep-like quality is exhibited in the avidity with which new fashions in clothes or foods are, safe to. say that any fashion in clothing or method of eating will quickly be copied if there,,b.e a leader to follow. For proof of this one' requires but to reflect on crqzes during the past few years. Mention may bo made of Coueism, no-breakfast habit, Bulgarian “bug” cultivation, hair bobbing and shingling, and a host of other practices, not to speak of dress fancies, house designing fads, and so forth. Some of these innovations have had merit, behind them, but the discontinuance of others indicates that the, imitative impulse was the main reason for their adoption. In still another way is the potency of suggestion illustrated. We refer to epidemics .of suicide and murder. It has boon noted that taking of poison by one individual is followed by a series of similar acts. The same thing follows

the publication of an instance 'in which hanging has been adopted by a suicide. Striking endorsement of this contention has been made during the past few weeks, when an alarming number of deaths by shooting have occurred. In similar manner have murders been committed. Our readers will recall quite a number of distressing cases in which the circumstances of murders in different parts of the Dominion have been identical. It all goes to demonstrate the power of thought and the necessity for keeping it in the pure air above the swamps of pestilence.