Just had a moment of clarity here.

I am having coffee and reading my e mails, halfheartdly listening to a newsfeed when I realize the feed is a test conducted on adolescents about Ethics, Peer pressure, and cheating.
Hardly a fine double blind, but interesting coffee fodder.

Ethics has often been a sticking point for me in my life. A place where I will see an ethical concern where others won't. I find among a contemplative, deep thinking group like this that is not too uncommon, whereas in the population in general it is a plague. A lack of Ethics seems to be everywhere.

Back in the early 80's when I took my first sociology class, on the very first day, the professor conducted a class experiment to show the class our own cognitive bias. The test was a mock crime, to which the class was witness, and which they all wrote down their descriptions of the perp and the events.

I never really got to participate in it, as I had a little too much street in me for the mock up. In my experience, as it went down, I was in the front row, one seat in from the left, unpacking my things. A guy came in went past me to the front of the class, snatched the Professors bag, and dashed for the door. The class froze in place, but not me. I was on that guys ass, in my mind he would never make the front doors, and I meant him bodily harm.

As we burst into the hall way, he went running and I ran smack dab into a linebacker and the dean. A serious wtf moment for me. I was taken aside by the dean of students and told I was the odd man out, that once in every ten classes or so, someone would react like me and pursue the threat, and that it was a test. I had coffee with the dean of students, the wall of a linebacker in the hall, and the "thief", a young quick footed sociology student of italian descent.

I learned two things that day, that the class all mislabled that "thief", as black, as hispanic, as poor and so forth, and not one witness was right. Some even labled me. Few were close, as that was not what they were paying attention to, and it was a sudden unexpected event.
The other thing I learned was that I was the Odd man out, a one in a hundred or thousand who runs to the gunfire, who reacts first to the threat, then concerns himself with possible consequences.

I have always seen not reacting as poor ethics, for if the room reacted, the thief gets nowhere, and ethics and the way people deal with them has always been interesting to me, a puzzle as to why it is so difficult for others.

All that to show why I decided to listen to the news feed. Now in the show the kids crumble to peer pressure, by one staged actor who is sent in to lie to improve scores. Some resist, but in most cases they cave to peer pressure and go with the flow, with deceit for personal gain.

When the researcher comments they say "What helps these kids to succeed and not cave is a mental image. If they think "What would Mom think of this? What would Dad say if he were watching? What would Coach say? Or whomever they respect, they are far more likely to succeed."

AND WALA, a moment of Clarity. For most of the society the NEED to fit in, to belong outweighs Ethics hands down. So much so, they NEED a mental figure in their mind, who is always watching, in order to remain Ethical. Without one they are likely to cave to peer pressure and not behave ethically.

Sound like anyone you have heard of?

NOW I do not fit into that "need to fit in" demographic. In fact I kind of Eschew that, and have since I was a boy. As a child I was pushed out of the greater society until I just did not care what it thought. I do not see it as a unified whole, but a collection of microsocities anyway. I have never felt a part of it and so I have no real herd instinct.

I am a wolf, not a sheep.
But it seems that for many Sheep, not having that Notion of a Shepard might actually put Ethics itself out of reach because herd instinct overwhelms it.

So perhaps I can only see the issues in religion that I do see because I am a wolf, but to the Sheep it is simply not visible due to peer pressure and the need to belong, which outweighs the pesky ethical concerns and forces them into a constant cognitive Dissonance.

Thoughts?