The easiness of influence...

 Before we watched the Wave in class, I underestimated how easily people can be influenced by those around them. The film shows the power of influence and honestly how scary something like fascism could develop. What started as a professor trying to do a simple classroom experiment became a movement, in only one week. 

This reminds me of the trends we have seen throughout class, not only with the power of manipulation but also how we as humans, act like horses. When we do not know where to go or what to think, we will just follow the trend and the people around us. We see this in the film, and how quickly everyone went from not wanting to conform to then doing a 180 and conforming to everything the professor said. The white shirts, the yes sir, the handshake, all of those things. They slowly convinced each and everyone of their classmates. Once there was enough students partaking in this, it was harder for an individual to question it because everyone else seemed to believe in it. 

I found it interesting how The Wave gave the students a sense of belonging and when the professor was ending the experiment, they did not want it to end. They did not want to loose that sense of belonging. I think this shows how sometimes influence is not manipulation, it is not always about trying to force someone to do something. Sometimes it is more powerful int the sense of people actually want to participate in something because they feel like they are part of something so much bigger than themselves. 

The part that was crazy to me was the easiness of influence. It is ways to recognize influence when you are watching it happen to someone else, but it is definitely way harder to recognize it when you are the one being influenced.