The Danger of Tranquility Lane

Why group-think is a dangerous artificial, alternate reality

Imagine you wake up in your perfectly made bed, in your perfectly-set house, in your perfectly manicured neighborhood block. Nothing is out of place, and everything goes on exactly as you think it would.

Welcome to Tranquility Lane.

This is an oft-used trope that tells the story about the horrors of a picturesque community, where nothing ever changes and everything is perfectly normal. Though, there is almost always something sinister bubbling under the surface, just waiting to bleed through the monochromatic, static background.

In the game Fallout 3, this particular wildcard was the Lone Wanderer. The simulation had been completely under the control of a single person who eventually grew bored and began indiscriminately (and virtually) murdering the town’s population and restarting the simulation, wiping their memories each time — that is until the Lone Wanderer puts an end to the program, mercifully (or not! It’s up to the player).

Such is the latent danger of Tranquility Lane; the fact that your opinions, your viewpoint, literally your entire world is under someone else’s control.

In the world we currently live in, with the advent of social media and the ability to create complete realities for ourselves by tailoring content and blocking out what we don’t want to see

The term “Groupthink” is used to describe the faulty decision making that can occur in groups, as a result of forces that bring a group together.

What makes this kind of thing a problem is the latent danger of the pressure to conform to the group’s consensus, which leads to a feedback loop of reinforcing broken logic.

When this is applied in the context of a team mentality, or in terms of a “movement”, the pressure is exponentially amplified to conform — or possibly risk being exiled from the group.

Thus, the creation of a Tranquility Lane. An alternative reality where people must conform and uphold not only the ideals of the group, but also uphold the reality of the group.

The true danger of all of this, is that there will always be those who are operating outside of “the program” (much like Dr. Braun, who kept restarting the simulations after meticulously torturing the inhabitants of it). The pace is set by those who “control” it, and as is often used as a trope in many, many stories — absolute power corrupts.

As can be seen on social media in every-day life, there are movements or groups that are weaponized for any number of causes. Often times, these groups are met with factual evidence and it is simply dismissed without reason, or logic. The simulation must remain protected.

So what can be done to counter such activity? What actions can be taken to decipher what is truth, and what is fiction?

Critical thinking is imperative to being able to slice through the forest of information we are constantly finding ourselves lost in.

Speaking as a paranormal investigator, I have been in the middle of many hard-to-explain situations. From having claw marks inexplicably appear on investigators, to hearing full conversations on audio playback that were not spoken at the time of recording — there have been plenty of situations that I have been presented facts, with anecdotal evidence that I simply cannot provide an answer for at the time.

That is where applying critical thinking is key, not only to those situations, but everyday situations as well.

The following are steps that I have developed to assist in preventing me from going down the “rabbit hole” of groupthink, and I would encourage others to develop a strategy that works for them.

Question the reality of your situation.

No matter how grounded in fact you may believe the experience or information you are receiving is, question the reality and validity of whatever it is that is being presented to you.

Allow yourself to be open to the fact that no matter how convincing the evidence that is being presented may be, that it may not be what it seems or may be presented in a way that misrepresents what it truly is.

Analyze the source of the information

At times, the information is only as good as it’s source. Analyzing the source of the evidence is key in determining the weight that should be considered. Is what being presented to you original? Is what is being presented in it’s entire context? Is the person/thing delivering this to you well-intentioned, or are they apt to lie?

Finding multiple sources to validate the information is key, but it is also important to take into account how the sources are connected as well — being sure to avoid blindly accepting facts from one set of people, which contribute to groupthink.

Attack the foundation of the claims

The last approach I take before making a determination on whether or not I accept a piece of information, is attacking the foundation — playing “Devil’s Advocate”. Attempting to find faults in the foundation of the statement/evidence as a way to see if there is any other potential faults that I may have missed initially.

This can be done by reviewing the credibility of the information, reviewing the consequences of the information being true as well as being false. By doing all of these (and more, a witch never reveals ALL her secrets), it allows to be prepared for the inevitable challenge of others, and tempers your own opinion so it isn’t so fragile that you need to defend it at all costs — it allows you to be malleable enough to be prepared to be corrected.

Even with these tools, you will still find resistance — and that is okay. This is not meant to force people out of the comfort of their Tranquility Lanes. There will still be people that vehemently defend these simulations as well, however critical thinking will better equip you with logic and reasoning.

At the end of all of it, much like the Lone Wanderer, you have the freedom of choice — unlike many of those who are trapped in the “ideal dream”.

In the world we currently live in, with the advent of social media and the ability to create complete realities for ourselves by tailoring content and blocking out what we don’t want to see — this is an all-to-important reminder of how to avoid falling back into the promise of a comfortable world.

A spotless world, where we won’t ever remember why we wanted to be there in the first place.