Whales

​At the time of writing a pod of Pilot whales has beached itself on the west coast of Tasmania. Apparently, they are very social animals. Pods can be up to 1,000 strong. That sort of thing happens most in Tasmania in this country. It is always difficult to look at.
No one really knows why they do it. If anyone claims they do, that is contrary to the views I heard expressed on a number of occasions. One of the reasons it is hard to determine why it happens is how hard it is to study whale behaviour.
A number of reasons are given for beaching, including illness, injury and the follow the leader mentality. If the leader is crook and leads them astray, they all go astray.
It is this that seems to make their behaviour very much like humans. It happened many years ago, but I remember Jim Jones. It was a shock at the time and still shocking. There was also the Waco incident, where many followed the leader to their deaths.
It seems both these incidents had religion in common. It seems to (be but is not excluded to), a prime candidate. Me being the way I am I ask myself, “why does it happen?” I know I cannot talk. I could easily have been born someone else.
It seems to me people often give themselves whole heartedly to something. Commitment is a boots and all thing. To me, no problem there. The problem can be that the life or beliefs of the leader were not examined properly in the first place, or maybe the leader changed, and tell-tale signs were ignored. Whatever the case, tragedy sometimes occurs.
Sometimes to it seems leaders are not up front. Only when a person is entrenched do they find out what is really going on. Wilful deception can be a really hard thing to get out of. How often do we hear of people being given a hard time and harassed when they choose to leave?
What seems to make things even harder, is how social humans are. We crave company. Sometimes we can be accepted by those who do not have our best interests at heart. To us it is the acceptance that counts, rather than the belief system.
We see a bit of this in countries where there are a great many poor. An organization meets their needs. People choose to follow that organization – not because they agree with what they stand for, and want to join, but because that organization met and continue to meet their present needs. It is no wonder someone said in the 1950’s “give us a leader, and be he God or the devil we will follow him.” In a sense, why wouldn’t you if they have answers? It is hard to fight on an empty stomach.
It is very much one of the reasons why I advocate being very careful about my direction. I need to sus out who I am following. I also do not want people believing what I believe because I believe it, but want people to believe something because they have discovered it for themselves.
There are a great many answers out there, but not every answer is the right answer. Some, if followed, will lead us astray.
It is speculation, but a bit like the leader of a pod of whales. All can seem good but mostly when beached it is too late.