The story highlights the dangers of herd mentality, in which individuals blindly adopt the opinions and actions of others without thinking for themselves. The article also discusses how this story relates to real-life situations, such as the failure of mini-market chains that were knockoffs of successful brands.
The Dangers of Panurge's Sheep Mentality:
In his book "Shortcut for a Better Life", the writer Ziad Rayess mentions: French author François Rabelais wrote a story about a man named Panurge who is on a sea journey onboard a ship. On the same ship, there is a sheep merchant, Dindenault, who has a herd of sheep he’s taken with him to sell.
Dindenault is a greedy merchant who knows no mercy. The great author Rabelais describes him as the worst man of his time, completely lacking humanity. A fight breaks out on the deck between Panurge and Dindenault.
As a result, Panurge plans to get his revenge on the greedy merchant. He decides to buy a sheep from the merchant at a high price, and Dindenault is delighted with the profitable deal.
Then, in a strange scene, Panurge grabs the sheep by its horns, drags it to the edge of the deck, and pushes it into the sea. As soon as one of the sheep did something, the other sheep would follow in the footsteps of the first, so when the first jumped to its death, so did the second, third, and fourth. The merchant is stunned as the rest of the sheep line up in an awful procession to “take part in the jump!”
Dindenault flies into a frenzy, trying to stop the herd from jumping into the sea, but his attempts are unsuccessful. The sheep’s belief in what they’re doing is so ingrained that they cannot resist it.
The greedy Dindenault makes a desperate attempt to grab the last living sheep, hoping to save it from its fate, but the faithful sheep is determined to follow the others, and the two of them fall into the sea and drown together.
This story gave rise to the expression “Panurge’s sheep” (moutons de Panurge), a common term in French for a group following the opinions or actions of others without awareness, intelligence, thinking, or will.
There is nothing more dangerous to a community than the growth of herd mentality among them.
This story takes me back 20 years ago, when the idea of investing in a chain of small stores with the brand name Mini Market Chain was spreading. A large group of brand names appeared in the market for mini market chains with various names. These were imitations of Tesco in Britain and 7/11 in the United States. But most of them, if not all, failed miserably, for many reasons that it’s not worth mentioning here. We were unlucky enough to have the same experience, with many attempts and methods that were also ineffective.
Then one of them said to me, “What’s happening is that we see a line of sheep running quickly, and people are going and standing around, hoping to get a piece of the pie, not knowing that the first sheep hesitated and fell head-first into a ravine.”
Yes! We often encounter entire herds of Panurge’s sheep in our lives. They’re hesitant to speak, or they do things just because they believe, heard, or saw that someone else did it.
Conclusion:
The story of Panurge's sheep serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of herd mentality. It's crucial for individuals to think critically and make decisions based on their own thoughts and beliefs rather than blindly following others. As seen in the example of mini-market chains, attempting to replicate the success of others without understanding the underlying causes can lead to failure. By being aware of the pitfalls of herd mentality, we can strive to make better decisions and develop our capacity for independent thought.
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