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54 A Time for Reflection / Advertisers’ Index International Transport Journal 35-36 2013Conformity and dissent«I’d rather be criticised by the right people than praised by the wrong ones.»Gerhard Kocher, a Swiss journalist and aphoristIt’s important to realise that not any andevery truth can be unreservedly trumpetedout into the world. Children tendto learn this in the schoolyard, usuallyin a rather emphatic way. Even if youaren’t particularly keen on the prevailingclothes, language or mode of mobility ofyour generation, you’ll be much better offif you only share any opinion that contradictsthe prevailing trend carefully. If onlyI’d known Cicero’s resigned sigh – «youhave to accept the times you live in» – insecondary school, I’d have been sparedthe poundings I got for sneering at thelimited speed of the mopeds popular atthe time. Some of my fellow pupils werecleverer – and quieter. Mopeds have becomerare today, my wounds have healed,and nowadays it’s electric bikes that dothe overtaking.I’ve noticed that the demand for dissentis on the decline. Labour psychologistsbelieve that teamwork, though frequentlycited in today’s labour market, is oftenno more than a code for conformity – aconformity that isn’t even necessarilydemanded by your boss, but is rathercalled for and monitored by your owncolleagues. This attitude reaches all theway to the top too, as James Westphal ofthe University of Texas established in a studyanalysing corporate boards. Dissenting opinionsare avoided there too, for fear of beingostracised. And the executive suite is surprisinglyin tune with the kindergarten. In 2011a group of Dutch and German anthropologyand psycho-linguistics institutes looked atthe behaviour of 96 four-year-olds, and establishedthat the children even supported amajority opinion when they had demonstrablyrecognised it to be wrong. The conclusion?Man is a hopelessly social animal.So is there no escaping this irksome conformity?The pessimistic German philosopherArthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) drasticallycountered this argument, as was to beexpected. He believed that a person whoaccepts every standard and rule inventedby his world, like a puppet on a string, «willeventually either buy some sleeping pills ora gun.» A better solution than the final exitcould be to appreciate dissent more, as evena small dose thereof can have a great effect.The Romanian-born Parisian psychologistSerge Moscovici (*1925) conducted experimentswhich showed that a lone but competentand self-assured dissident can turn a97% majority opinion, for example, into a36% minority – provided he’s vehementenough in his public appearance. A loudcritic thus has at least a relatively goodchance of swaying opinion in an all-toounanimous environment.But is dissent worth anything in its ownright at all? Western and Eastern thoughtare remarkably convergent in their positiveassessment of this question. In thetradition of Confucian philosophy theChinese Marxist leader Mao Tse-tung(1893–1976) considered a divergentopinion to be the cause and preconditionof any development – which put him inagreement with the German philosophersImmanuel Kant (1724–1804) and GeorgHegel (1770–1831). As dissidents we canthus feel in harmony with yin and yang– even when facing strong headwinds.If that isn’t enough, then allow me tocite the Irish playwright George BernardShaw (1856–1950), whose more than90 years of life led him to conclude that«reasonable people adapt themselves tothe world. Unreasonable people attemptto adapt the world to themselves. All progress,therefore, depends on unreasonablepeople.»Christian DoepgenAdvertisers’ IndexArkas/Marport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4A.R.T. 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Transportorganisation AG . . . . . . . .2Lognet Global Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33M & M Militzer & Münch International Holding AG . . . . . .24NAVIS Schiffahrts- u. Speditions AG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51Power Lift Events LTD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8Project Cargo + Yacht Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42Russian Railways JSC RZD OAO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56Saco Shipping GmbH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12S.I.T.T.A.M. 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