“Herd Thinking”
A few years ago, a plane crashed in Africa. It was an international flight from Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, to a town called Bandundu. The crash happened as the plane was coming in to land. 20 people on board, including the 2 pilots, were killed outright. There was only 1 survivor, who was immediately taken to hospital. No one could understand the reason for the crash. The plane was modern and in good condition. It was twin-engine turboprop Let L-410. The 2 pilots were both qualified and experienced. The wreckage was examined and everything was found to be in good mechanical order. They couldn’t find a single reason for the plane to crash. Until, they questioned the only survivor, who was recovering in hospital. He explained what happened and it was something no one could ever have guessed. He said 1 of the passengers had hidden a young crocodile in their duffel bag. Because it was illegal they had to smuggle it on board. All of the luggage was stacked at the rear of the plane, behind the passengers. As the plane was coming in to land, the young crocodile got loose. The flight attendant ran to the front of the plane to tell the pilots. The passengers saw her running away from the crocodile and panicked. They ran after her. All the weight shifted to the front of the plane and it went into a dive. The pilot told everyone to get back. But with plane nose-down, they couldn’t climb back up the aisle. The pilot couldn’t pull the plane out of the dive. The plane ploughed, at full speed, head first into the ground. And 20 people die. But the young crocodile lived, becaused= it was in the rear. The young crocodile was small enough to fit into a duffel bag. The worst it could do was to give you a nasty bite. And if you left it alone it probably wouldn’t even do that. But no one was thinking. Everyone was just copying everyone else. If other people are running away, we’d better do the same. Because that’s what people. (One + One = Three, Dave Trott, p.67-69). Isn’t the same situation with the toilet paper stocking up at the moment?? People had a brawl at the supermarket over the toilet paper. That is way over panicking. |
AuthorJohn Paopeng Archives
October 2023
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