Symptoms of Groupthink mentality

Having written a few times about Groupthink Psychology I thought , after watching the "Save Manston Airport" Annual General meeting, that a brief resume was needed.

“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.”- George Carlin

Watching the speakers (Dan Light, Roger Gale et al) is was fairly obvious there was much Ra Ra but little in the way of facts. The statement by Roger Gale that he wears the epitaph "The MP for Riveroak" as a badge of honour shows just how much he is out of touch with the facts about Riveroak and the needs of his electorate but in the context of the circa 60-80 people in the room just what they wanted to hear.

 That is the main thing about the Herd Mentality prevalent in the Save Manston Campaign, That is the fact that no matter what others say about a freight hub no one will allow themselves to see the reality. Everyone who says otherwise is the enemy and their minders do their best to dehumanise so it becomes easy to vilify anyone who has a different view.

However what is glossed over is what Freudmann and Riveroak propose. These are the 8 tenets

1. An illusion of invulnerability: Members ignore danger, take extreme risk and are overly optimistic.
2. Collective rationalization: Members discredit and explain away warning contrary to group thinking.
3. Belief in inherent morality: Members discredit and explain away warning contrary to group thinking.
4. Stereotyped views of out-groups: The group constructs negative stereotypes of rivals outside the group.
5. Direct pressure on dissenters: Members pressure any in the group who expresses arguments against the group’s stereotypes, illusions, or commitments, viewing such opposition as disloyalty.
6. Self-censorship: Members withhold their dissenting views and counter-arguments.
7. Illusion of unanimity: Members perceive falsely that everyone agrees with the group’s decision; silence is seen as consent.
8. “Mind guards” are appointed: Some members appoint themselves to the role of protecting the group from adverse information that might threaten group complacency.

So let's look at what Riveroak are proposing and what Residents of Ramsgate need to be mindful of:

To become an Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) link Riveroak have to persuade the Planning authority that Manston will achieve 10,000 extra freight movements than it achieved in its best year. So what does that mean.
based on 360 days a year they will have to land more than 33 747 jumbos every day. now assuming they don't apply for night flights (another possibility) they need to bring in a plane every 20-30 minutes something that would seriously impact in the physical and mental wellbeing of every Ramsgate resident, something that Riveroak, Dan Light, Beau Webber and the rest of the hardliners fail to mention. Here is the flight path over Ramsgate:

However when the herd runs in one direction with no one prepared to look at the alternatives "Manston or bust" is the only game in town and all the rhetoric in the world doesn't matter it will have to be up to the people at the National Planing to set the strictures in place to protect the residents of Ramsgate, such as an Environmental Impact report.
What seems so peculiar about these plans is we seem to be the only place in the UK that wants to bring noise and pollution 800 feet over a Georgian Town of 45,000 people. Anywhere else would be fighting to stop the environmental impact.

Here is a link to a recent article in the guardian link concerning air pollution

The only bright spot in this mess is the fact that Manston has never ever managed to attract the kind of business required to gain acceptance that it will ever prove to be a NSIP and it seems the local council feel the same way as they are continuing to see if another investor will come forward with better financial credentials.
Freudmann did confirm that Riveroak have written to TDC to advise that their soft market exercise is doomed to failure as their application will take precedence. Now I find that funny but I can see a method in their madness as they expect other investors will pull out (or at least they hope that will happen).

One last question for the SMA "How many newspaper reporters did you get at your big event"?