Augustine was an interesting character. I have read his confessions and was pleasantly surprised by the insight of his words. My favorite story was perhaps the story of the pear trees. In the story, If you don’t know, Augustine, with a group of friends who were not of the reputable sort, went to a persons house, and stole as many pears as they could carry, off the tree. Then he and his friends proceeded to eat the pears and what they couldn’t eat, they threw away to pigs.
Augustine himself talks about this in a way that I think all of us could learn something from. He talks about how he probably would not have done this, had he not been with his friends. A common thought and tone on many things now a days. Peer pressure. It seems as if the entire world of sin runs off peer pressure. But, it is a truly terrifying thought, that a gang of people can nearly control the mind of singular individuals. It’s not fair. But the fact that man can be swayed so easily is a reason to try to counter those effects. Rational thinking and debates could help, probably.
Another thought is the fact that doing something one knows is wrong is kind of like transference. Where you think what you are doing is less bad because more people do it. Making the percentage seem not so bad. Or the thought that you weren’t the mastermind of the operation, or you didn’t go as far or you did less than someone else. All of these things could stem from peer pressure and being in a crowd of people.
I guess what I’m saying here is, you’re better off alone. Being by yourself will keep you out of trouble. Isolate yourself from society, drop out of college, become a hermit in a mountain somewhere were you can’t hurt anyone. I think that would be the best place for everyone, because, hey, we aren’t hurting anyone. Or are we?
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