By ROBERT JUMPER
Tutiyi (Snowbird) and Clyde, N.C.
I am dumbfounded by some of the warnings and recommendations that are coming from authorities and social services groups these days. One advisory had to do with preventative measures for leaving a child in the backseat of a vehicle. One of the “tricks” this agency recommended was to put something important in the backseat with the child so that the parent would remember that item and it would prompt them to remember their child. Seriously? Must you put something you really care about in the back seat, maybe your laptop or purse, to remember your child is back there? Many new vehicles are being equipped with a sensor and an onboard screen reminder to check your back seat for your kids. Amazing!
You really do not have to dig very deep into the web to find more examples of what Reader’s Digest calls “labels that make us question our faith in humanity”. Product manufacturers not only attempt to look after the less mentally acute clients, but also do their very best to buffer themselves from lawsuits brought by those unwitting product users. Here are some examples from the Digest’s files.
A wheelbarrow manufacturer’s warning label states, “Caution: Not intended for highway use”. A baby stroller manufacturer felt the need to tell us “Caution: Remove child before folding”. A note on a digital health thermometer reads, “Warning: Once used rectally, the thermometer should not be used orally”. This note on the back of a Chipotle semi-truck trailer was apparently meant to keep hungry folks from tailing the truck, hoping to get their Tex-Mex fix, or Chipotle delivery truck hijackings are more of a thing than I thought. It reads “Notice: Drivers do not carry burritos”. A warning label on a takeout coffee cup reminds us that you should “Avoid pouring on crotch area.” This warning was probably precipitated by the famous 1992 case of Liebeck versus McDonald’s, in which she sued the company for a hot cup of coffee that she spilled on herself. The 49-cent cup of coffee turned into a two-year disability for Ms. Liebeck and a six-digit settlement for her from McDonald’s. Or how about the jet ski company that felt it necessary to advise, “Warning: Never use a lit match or open flame to check fuel levels”. There is a dishwasher company that tells us, “Notice: Do not allow children to play in the dishwasher”. Aren’t you glad that a company selling packaged fireplace logs reminds you that “Caution: Risk of fire”? Or the fishing hook company that lets you know that a fishing hook is “harmful if swallowed”.
Here’s a little wisdom for the office that we, at the One Feather, observe. We have a laser printer in the office. We are very appreciative of the warning label that reads, “Warning: Do not eat toner”. We do scratch our heads over the cautionary message on a letter opener that says, “Caution: Safety goggles recommended”. As the Digest suggests, “How aggressively are people opening their letters?” (from 20 Stupid Warning Labels That Will Make You Feel Like a Genius, 2025, Reader’s Digest Editors).
Our modern society bombards us with propaganda and even software innovations to push us not to think and do for ourselves. We have discussed previously how little the population trusts organized media for truthfulness and unbiased reporting, and yet we base some of our most crucial decisions on information we receive from those same media sources, in addition to unvetted special interest organizations, and even the friends that we have never met in person on Facebook. We are trained not to think, not to question, not to draw rational conclusions. In essence, we are told not to use our common sense, just trust what is said, like we are lemmings.
One commentator, David Icke, says, “Lemmings are small rodents who have been known to follow each other as they charge to their deaths into raging rivers or off of cliffs. ‘Lemminghood’ is an innate psychological phenomenon, present in most mammals and observable in common people as well as the most sophisticated and educated elites. ‘Lemminghood’ is not an intellectual phenomenon. It is psychological. As such, no socio-economic class is immune to its strangulating effect. A grant-seeking university scientist can be a lemming just as much as a fashion-obsessed teenager. One blindly follows the latest trendy theory, while the other blindly follows the latest trendy clothing style. Neither can resist the force of nature. The power to fit in with one’s social peers can be irresistible. To a human lemming, the logic behind an opinion doesn’t count as much as the power and popularity behind an opinion”. (The Road Map, David Icke, 2026)
Humanity is about as trusting as it has ever been, historically speaking. Many of the extreme conservative and extreme liberal viewpoints come from information supplied from sources that have never been vetted or where the vetting is suspect, or as the younger generations say “sus”. You might think that followers would stop and say, “hold on, that just doesn’t seem right” when they are faced with a proposition that is extremely apart from their norm, but not so.
Ron McIntyre, who is listed as a “Leadership Anthropologist, Author and Consultant”, wrote about this follower mentality in March of last year. He gave 10 reasons, so many are acting like lemmings. The list included the social media echo chamber, making people more susceptible to groupthink. AI-driven trends, allowing artificial intelligence to curate our experiences and follow the digital herd without realizing how much AI is leading us by the nose, we fear missing out if we don’t follow the crowd; we succumb to corporate manipulation, allowing establishment leaders to push in a certain direction; we have an overreliance on influencers, trusting them blindly with our thoughts and feelings; political polarization from groups of extremists pulling us from rational thought with irrational messages; we don’t critically think for ourselves, being willing to adopt everyone else’s point of view without thinking through the matter alone; we give ourselves over to mass psychological stress relying on collective behavior to relieve our situations; increasing dependence on virtual reality escapism, enjoying the digital world more than reality; and the decline of individualism, the cultural shift from individual identity to a more collective identity. (ronmci.medium.com)
Disclaimer: Some commentators suggested that lemmings following each other to their deaths is an urban legend. Regardless, they have become a symbol of following blindly and extreme herd mentality.
It is more challenging than ever to find the facts and truth needed to make rational decisions based on common sense. For example, when governments withhold information from the citizenry they serve, the community is left with no way to make good judgments on laws, projects, or even to select public servants to provide leadership. We see this tendency to withhold information from federal, state, local, and tribal governments. It is possible to be a person or a government with integrity and high character and still be fearmongered into believing that it is better to keep a community in the dark rather than be transparent and allow the community to play a role in their destiny.
I am not a big fan of placation. It was a tool of the federal government when tribes were placed on reservations. The message was that if Indigenous peoples were quiet and compliant, the government would supply their needs and allow them to live peacefully. This promise came after, in some cases, brutal removal of those indigenous peoples from their homelands and total disregard for treaty guarantees. They were stripped of their human rights and prepared for assimilation. You would think that we would be, as Indigenous peoples, particularly sensitive to civil rights and any attempt to withhold information that rightfully belongs to us.
When we see a government authority proposing legislation to further restrict our access to information, we must question those actions and that legislation. Keeping in mind that each time we give up information, we also give up the ability to make rational, common-sense decisions for ourselves. We give up power that belongs to us. Cherokee pride, sovereignty, and transparency become nothing more than buzzwords if we are not knowledgeable and leading, instead of acting like lemmings.
I tried to think of a fitting warning to sum up this whole lemming phenomenon, and I kept coming back to what so many mothers have said to their children. Mom used to say, “And if your friends jumped off a cliff, would you follow them?”
