<p>It is always important that one discerns from right and wrong by himself, because following the crowd is the easy route, wrong by definition. One follows the crowd because he or she is afraid of consequences of action, and a reticent listlessness demands no responsibility or grueling decision making. In history and literary works, one can find countless situations that exemplify this notion.</p>
<p>First, let's examine the novel 1984 by George Orwell. Here, one can see a nation that resulted from everyone following the crowd, completely derelict of thinking or responsibility. The whole nation, Oceania, is controlled by the Big Brother, and the Government installs nefarious and preposterous ideas into peoples' minds via a tele-screen, which they obediently adopt, accepting the most contradictory ideas and utterly flagrant assertions as completely natural and straightforward, implementing them into their lifestyles and embracing them as their own opinions. This lead to the country of Oceania becoming an awful, lifeless, taciturn place, devoid of creativity, insightfulness and independence. This egregious excuse for a community is a clear consequence of people not thinking for themselves, not trying to do the right thing, making no difference between good or bad, just doing what everyone else is. Orwell's novel is a harbinger of what may come if we don't realize the importance of conscious and prudent decision making.</p>
<p>A real, non-fiction example of the same issue can be found in history, looking at World War II and Hitler's reign in Germany. Hitler started out just giving speeches which sounded inspirational, which lulled people into a sense of righteousness and a vast amount of the population started following him blindly. Even after his ways started promoting severe jingoism, everyone did as he told, because they were unwilling to take up responsibility, or even think about the morality of their actions. They then participated in the slaughter of millions of people, only too late realizing the cataclysmic consequences of the events that occurred. All this because no one wanted to bother to think for a second about his or hers integrity, and about pertinence of the actions of the person whole views he or she represents. </p>
<p>These two examples, one from history, one a possible future, should encourage everyone to think about the present and start deciding for themselves about what is right or wrong, and not blindly blend in with the crowd.</p>