Soylent Green is Sheeple!

In the modern intellectual world, there is no greater delicacy than lamb. This is the age of plausibly deniable cannibalism, where man eats his own, pretending to be of an advanced and superior offshoot to the lesser beings he counts as his food. For the uninformed, the term ‘sheeple’ refers to those who go along with the general public, who are thought to blindly follow the words of another without giving them proper thought and consideration.

For many people in the world, there is another definition of ‘sheeple’; that is, anyone who does not share his or her own beliefs. Sometimes, it even includes those who share their beliefs, as the one making the definition may consider someone who believes for the wrong reasons to be amongst the sheep. This form of predation – intellectual, political, religious, or philosophical, etc – thrives upon self-aggrandizement. In the barest sense, it is the belief that one’s own mental faculties and logical abilities are either far beyond so many others, or those droves of unbelievers were led from one misconception to the next, snowballing to their present state of extreme ignorance.

Even without taking into account the numerous logical fallacies inherent in such a belief, it is still distinctly negative for the intellectual wellbeing of our society as a whole, as well as that of future generations. While some would go so far as to say that it is natural to downplay conflicting and contradictory beliefs, the utter inanity of portraying the opposition as sheeple is an ad hominem attack against their very ability to make a reasoned judgment. Taking the example of liberals versus conservatives, it is important to recognize where the differences are, and where they are not. Yes, they believe very different things, yet there is generally a form of reasoning that makes sense given their own individual experiences and perspectives.

Using that same example, there is a proper and an improper way to cast doubt on the beliefs of the opposition. For a liberal, it is common to say that the conservative is swayed by a belief in religion, or to an archaic modality, which has no place in modern society. That in and of itself is not invalid, provided that the liberal can show a relevant and substantiated link between the person’s religious or moral views and their opinions on current topics, as well as evidence that the belief is irrelevant or unacceptable in the modern world. It is when the liberal takes the stance that a conservative’s views are all or nearly all false, simply because they believe in what they believe, that the liberal is in the wrong. One cannot determine the validity of a moral standard in a vacuum, and use it as self-supporting evidence of its own falseness or irrelevance.

To give a historical basis to this, take the example of Galileo. In the early 1600’s, Galileo was condemned by the Church for heresy; rather than examine his evidence on its own merit, it was assumed to be false, morally wrong, and blasphemous, due to the fact that it did not ‘follow the Scripture.’ This man, who was later regarded as the father of modern science, fits perfectly under this definition of sheeple, as he was seen to be a sheep after the pattern of ‘Satan’ – one who did not think for himself, and was thus swayed to a heathen modality. If the majority of the world had continued to hold these views, it is entirely possible that science as we know it today would not exist. In its place, we would have God to explain the mysteries of the universe to us. Our quest for knowledge would have ended, if this man, this sheep, had been kicked aside even by those who would follow.

When man devours his own, it is not for the bare requirement of survival, but the opposite. Ostracizing and segregating those who differ from us in knowledge or opinion serves to do nothing but bathe in our own ignorance, to flounder in the deluge of our own mental wastes. It is in diversity that ideas are borne, and it is in diversity and honest scrutiny that they are flensed of errors and falsehoods, leaving a well-deserved nothing, or else a beneficial and worthwhile shard of truth in its place. Always remember that, no matter how tasty Soylent Green is, it will always be made of sheeple.