Herd mentality

I try not to quote the American super-spreader in chief, but something he said recently really amused me. He referred to ‘herd mentality’ protecting us from coronavirus, even though I’m fairly sure what he meant was ‘herd immunity’. Although we’re all armchair epidemiologists these days, I’ll spare you my uninformed views on herd immunity, but I do have uninformed views on herd mentality. Which I’m prepared to share.

Although I like to imagine that I’m an independently minded person forging my own path in life, in fact nothing could be further from the truth. With minor variations, I go about my daily life in pretty much the same way as everyone around me. Some of us take more exercise than others and our diets vary from vegan to enthusiastic carnivore, but most of us acknowledge that a bit of exercise might be good for us and that eating too many Cheesy Wotsits will probably turn us orange. Our politics may range from liberal to conservative, but most of us have similar moral values. Essentially, I live in a bubble. I’m part of a herd.

There are many examples of herd mentality on a massive and destructive scale like the dot.com boom and bust from 1995 to 2001 and the financial crisis of 2008, but most of us regularly experience it on a much humbler level. Think of what we eat. A few years ago none of us had heard of kombucha or kimchi, but the accepted wisdom now is that fermented foods are crucial to maintaining healthy gut bacteria. Apparently, we ignore our gut bacteria at our peril. Then there’s exercise. At the beginning of the year, gyms were still enormously popular, but now many people are shunning them and choosing healthy outdoor exercise or online classes instead. Whether we’ll be so keen for bracing countryside walks when our winter rains set in I don’t know. And I’ve decided that Adriene is my new best friend and will not be giving up online yoga anytime soon.

Then there’s our choice of holiday. Destinations come into fashion and then fade away. About 20 years ago my fellow herd members decided that Marrakesh was the place to go. The appeal for Europeans is obvious – it’s a wonderfully different and exotic world only 3½ hours away by plane. The particularly besotted decided to make a little corner of this world their own and bought dilapidated riads and restored them at great expense. Then a couple of years ago it seemed that everyone I knew was going to New Zealand. I have no idea why people travelled so far to visit somewhere that I’m told looks a lot like Scotland.

Sometimes there’s just something in the air. Things simmer underneath and then erupt into everyone’s consciousness.  I think what I’m admitting here is that we’re all part of the human race. Although I’m not acknowledging any kinship with his smugness across the Atlantic.