first ask a question: why does obey the minority?
Seeing this problem, you might say that I am sensational because there are too many "minority obedience to majority" in life.
For example, when choosing where to eat, what to eat at gatherings, and even when voting for leaders, everyone counts the heads and acts in accordance with the rule of the minority obeying the majority. This is also democracy within the cognitive radius of the majority.
I don't deny these facts, but before we start, let’s look at two stories.
01
How did Christianity develop the world university?
Not long after Christianity appeared, it was completely blocked by the regime of the ancient Roman Empire.
is not intolerant of ancient Rome. They once specially built a pantheon to invite the gods from the conquered areas of Rome in, so that the gods can receive the same treatment as the Roman gods.
is not that other believers are intolerant. On the contrary, at that time, all religions were "magnanimous." Christians were not treated specially by everyone. The most fundamental reason for
is that Christianity is particularly "paranoid".
Christianity believes that there is only one deity in the world, that is, the God Jehovah in the Old Testament. Other deities are pseudo-gods pretending to be demons. Those who believe in pseudo-gods and abandon the right way will be punished by God.
The doctrine of Christianity itself has a denial of other gods and beliefs, so wherever Christianity spreads, it will cause religious commotion.
The most unbearable thing for the Romans is that Christianity prohibits idolatry. In the eyes of Christians, it is also a heinous crime for the Romans to worship their emperor and ancestors. The concept of
endangered the roots of the Roman Empire, so Christianity was suppressed by those in power, and many Christians were sentenced to capital punishment such as feeding lions.
But Christians are very tough, and political suppression has not only failed to make them disappear, but has made them more fanatical.
Christians preach secretly among the people. Sometimes they are crazy enough to ask others to convert, and internally advocate blindly uncompromising and intolerant of other religions. Catherine, the famous martyr of
, visited her contemporaries, the Roman Emperor Maxentius, and tried to persuade him to believe that persecuting Christians was a moral error.
She also successfully converted the queen to Christianity, and many pagan philosophers sent by the emperor to argue with her also converted to Christianity under her persuasion. The emperor
couldn't argue with Catherine, so he put her in prison; when people who visited her converted, the emperor could only sentence her to torture.
Catherine is an extremely "piety" believer, even when she is pushed to the guillotine, she still persuades others to convert to Christ.
Because of the fanatical preaching of martyrs like Catherine, and Christianity denies the gods’ exclusiveness in advocating God, in the end, Christianity grew stronger and gradually became the No. 1 religion in the Roman Empire, and has grown to become one of the world’s three largest religions today. How does
02
sell more automatic cars than manual cars?
In 1886, the first car of mankind was born, but it was not equipped with a transmission. It was not until 1902 that the first car with a transmission came out. With the transmission of
, people can change the torque of the car engine by manually shifting gears to achieve functions such as speed change and torque adjustment at the same power to adapt to different road conditions. Whether
can control the gear shifting and driving rhythm is a test of the driver's hand-foot coordination, and it is also a manifestation of a person's driving level.
It wasn't until 1940 that Oldsmobile cars in the United States were equipped with the world's first automatic transmission, which meant that the gap between novice and veteran was weakened. The advantages of
automatic transmission are obvious. The requirements for hand-foot coordination are not so high, and the operation complexity is less.
But many people look down on the automatic transmission, and they still choose manual transmission when buying a car. They have many reasons:
- fast speed
- long gearbox life
- concentration of attention
- low fuel consumption
- good controllability
- The failure rate is relatively low
has spent decades from its birth to large-scale popularization in foreign countries, but in recent years the market share in China has only exceeded 60%. The strange thing about
is why the automatic transmission can be widely used in the back? At the beginning, only a few parties supported it, and the advantages of automatic transmission were not liked by old drivers. Some people say that it is the development of gearbox technology.
has a certain truth, but the defects of the automatic transmission have not been compensated, but the failure rate has been improved.
Some people say that it is because more and more people are not good at driving. How does
understand?
With economic development, cars are becoming more and more popular in popular families, and women driving are becoming more and more common. When women who are not so good at driving choose between automatic and manual transmission, they will definitely choose the convenient and easy-to-operate Manual gear.
Old drivers who like manual transmission still account for more? Why is the proportion of manual gear still decreasing?
A family is limited by the economy and parking spaces and often can only buy one car. When there is one person in the family who can only drive a simpler automatic gear, those who can drive the manual gear can only compromise and choose the automatic gear that they don’t like.
Therefore, the market share of automatic transmissions is getting higher and higher. Some industry insiders predict that even in China, the proportion of automatic transmissions will exceed 90% around 2025.
03
Two enlightenments
Let’s analyze these two cases again.
Christianity opposes the Pantheon and denies the existence of the gods, which is contrary to the wishes of the majority of people. According to the principle of the minority subordinate to the majority, the Christian congregation cannot develop. The
automatic gears are not liked by old drivers. According to the minority obey the majority, they should have disappeared in the long history, or at least can only maintain a certain market ratio, how can they become more and more popular.
You see, the essence of the two cases of is that the will of the minority is successfully implemented to the majority, which is contrary to the phenomenon that we usually say that the minority obeys the majority.
What kind of enlightenment does this give us? .
1. How powerful is the attitude
Looking at the two cases, whether it is the growth of Christianity or the popularization of automatic transmissions, it is inseparable from the firm attitude of their respective supporters.
Christianity has loyal martyrs like Catherine, and automatic gear has its beloved fans. Although they were a minority at first, they can also penetrate the majority with their firm attitude.
I am not filling chicken soup for everyone, I only describe a basic fact, because similar examples are also very common in life.
For example, there are old people or children in the family who don't like to eat too hard rice. If the rice tastes too hard, they will scream that they can’t eat enough. The end result is definitely that young people obey their will and everyone eats softer rice.
For another example, Jews have very strict eating habits, and they are determined not to eat anything that violates Judaism.
In the beginning, in order to take care of the Jews, the United States printed a U-shaped logo on the outer packaging of all kosher beverages on the shelves.
Gradually, almost all beverages in supermarkets are required to meet this condition, so that there are almost no U-shaped beverages in American supermarkets.
And the proportion of Jews in the total population of the United States, do you know what it is?
is less than 3%.
In order to take care of these 3%, all Americans have to accommodate them, and all beverage manufacturers have to transform their production lines. Speaking of this, do you find it strange that a tough attitude really has such power?
answered clearly, no. The result of
is a conditional possibility. What are the specific conditions for
, we have to talk about the second inspiration.
2. Indifferent means giving up power
The minority will be able to implement the majority. The fundamental premise is that the majority attitude is indifferent.
Christianity can be spread to many people because the people who are spread are not firm, and most people feel that it doesn’t matter what religion they believe in. The large-scale popularization of automatic transmission is due to familyIt doesn't matter if people like manual gear when working as a unit; the promotion of "kosher" drinks is also because other people don't care.
does not discuss whether "indifferent" is right or wrong. If we dig into the things behind this, we will find that doesn't matter, which means giving up choice and initiative.
This is a bit scary, because most Chinese people are shy, don't like making choices, and don't like rejection.
Order food, take a taxi, assign work tasks, deal with disputes... "Indifferent" has become a frequent word in life.
When small things evolve into big things, it doesn't matter, the hardline attitude of the minority can produce the dominant effect in the majority.
can ask, who wants to be a person who often gives up power and always lives in the opinions and aura of others?
does not.
So, don't say "it doesn't matter" in life, and less "I can", because the subtext behind them is "I don't care" and "I abstain."
04
Summary
There is a sentence that accords with intuition in terms of probability: truth is often in the hands of a few people.
In fact, more often it is not because the truth is in the hands of the minority, but because the majority’s “indifferent” gave up power, and finally the minority’s truth became everyone’s truth. Of course, there is a major premise of
that the truth must be right.
Therefore, if Christianity is a heresy, it cannot grow. If the automatic transmission accident rate is high, it will not be accepted.
But what we need to understand is that the firm attitude of determines how much personal will can be extended, while the indifferent attitude determines how much it can be influenced by the will of others.
After all, the indifferent essence is to give up the power in one's hands and be at the mercy of others.
