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Jumping on the Bandwagon

When people express interest in something new, is it genuine? The latest tech gadget, the newest entertainment product, the hippest music artist, the trendiest fashion brand, and so on. Are these interests authentic? Those who quickly find themselves jumping on bandwagons may deceive themselves into believing that their newfound interest is genuine. How often have you heard someone say,

“XYZ is the in thing; it’s okay because everybody is doing it now?”,

This statement serves as a green light to join the overflowing bandwagon, filled with people clapping their hands in unison without questioning why they are blindly following the crowd.


As the bandwagon barely rounds its first corner, the fickle passengers notice another bandwagon driving faster beside them, attracting more people. If more people are on that wagon, then, to the fickle, it must be cooler than the one they currently occupy. So, they leap, once again deceiving themselves that this new bandwagon is superior while mocking the previous one for being outdated and no longer trendy. What happens next? Inevitably, they spot another bandwagon, and the cycle continues.


Regardless of the specifics, when humans see others possessing something, they feel compelled to have it too. And the ‘it’ is often arbitrary and meaningless. This is how trends take hold and mass movements form. Worse still, when there are multiple large bandwagons, they compete fiercely with each other, driven by biased and overly committed belief systems. Each side begins to despise the other, even becoming prejudiced and violent, fuelled by in-group speak and confirmation bias within their echo chambers.


Bandwagons can become dangerous, primarily because they form due to a lack of scepticism and inquiry within their ranks. As previously mentioned, no one asks “why”? Instead, committed believers per bandwagon choose to isolate themselves from differing opinions, unable to blend ideas to reach a central compromise, and in total denial of the possibility that their side could be wrong. A fusion of ideas, philosophies and concepts is where groundbreaking change and progression flourish. I speak on this in reference to both micro and macro scales – micro being social tolerance and shared creativity, and macro being politics, scientific advancement, and economy.

*This writing is featured in the book, Denial.