44 pages • 1 hour read
Alexandra RobbinsThe Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 4-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
“Fall”
Chapter 4 Summary: “In the Shadow of the Freak Tree”
Amy likes to spend weekends hanging out “by the freak tree,” or playing capture the flag in the park. Like many high schoolers, she is caricatured by her peers, but is a nuanced and talented individual. Suzanne is labeled as an “artsy indie,” while Laney is considered “creepy” because she is not bothered about being different. Allie is dubbed a “freak” for the same reason, and Flor a “Mexican slacker” because she dropped out of school as a freshman to take care of her brother while her parents were away. Flor has a congenital heart defect yet remains positive.
Blue’s mother threatens to beat him because he has been failing some classes. She confiscates his computer. Blue does his homework in a local Starbucks on a computer Ms. Collins has leant him. He contemplates suicide. Blue’s mother tells him he is going into the military.
On Leigh’s birthday, Noah feels distant from her. He campaigns for junior class president, but once again, Kent beats him. During the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Noah accidentally hits a friend with a golf cart. He jokes with Leigh on the bus home, and after several days, they decide to get back together.
Surrounded by skinnier girls, Danielle talks less and less. She finds solace in spending time with two girls, Emily and Viv, who have neither sight nor speech.
Joy befriends Cleo in biology but still has a few friends. She reproves Xavier for making anti-Mexican comments and is herself shunned by some Mexican girls. Joy is depressed and homesick. Though classmates were jealous of her, her parents had divorced when she was just two years old. Joy’s father routinely beat and verbally abused her. When she was nine, he was arrested but let out on bail after a year because of his political position. She has come to peace about it.
Whitney loses her virginity to Luke at a party. The popular clique decides that Whitney’s new friends—twins who have recently arrived from another district—are going to be jettisoned from the group in favor of Irene, whom Whitney likes less. Yet Whitney accepts the group’s verdict. Continually bullied by Whitney’s popular clique, the twins move again less than a fortnight later.
Studies show such situations may be due to a dynamic called group polarization, which causes groups to adopt more extreme positions than they would individually. This dynamic has also been observed in the court room. It can also increase nationalism and racism. Distortions occur when individuals see themselves reflected in the mirror of such groups. The diffusion of individual intergroup identity has led some researchers to suggest that members of a distinct group lose their inhibitions more easily than individuals.
Chapter 5 Summary: “It’s Good to Be the Cafeteria Fringe”
Noah steers the golf cart in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Blue realizes he still can pass his exams, which are averaged at the end of the year. He hangs out with Ty, but still feels lonely. Rumors swirl about Regan’s sexuality, and she admits to her students she is gay. They are supportive. Danielle makes friends through snowboarding, and enjoys working with people who have mental and physical handicaps. She feels relaxed with Emily and Viv.
Studies indicate that children are more drawn to friends who are similar. However, adolescent groups with high levels of conformity encounter more unhealthy behaviors. A study by Solomon Asch showed that even when the answer was obvious, individuals would select an incorrect response that aligned with the group. Neuroscientist Gregory Berns also noted that fear was triggered when an individual went against the group.
Feeling rejected, Whitney throws herself at other boys in front of Luke but rejects Spencer’s brothers advances. Irene is excluded from New Year’s Eve celebrations by the group and spends it at home. Eli is ditched by his friends at the mall.
Lady Gaga was also routinely excluded at school. So were Stephen Spielberg and Einstein. The CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch, addressed the importance of free thinking in his book Winning. Resilience in the face of social exclusion is thus another important factor in success. Self-awareness is named by University of Houston management Professor Warren Blank as the most important leadership ability. “Lack of candor basically blocks smart ideas,” according to The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The success of Taylor Swift may be due to her candor, though she was bullied at school. So were celebrities Judd Apatow, Angelina Jolie, Drake, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Zooey Deschanel, among numerous other successful entertainers.
Chapters 4-5 Analysis
In these chapters, Robbins explicates what social scientists have more colloquially called “mob mentality,” though Robbins refers to the phenomenon as “group polarization.” This is the tendency for group members to assume more extreme stances than they would individually. Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point and James Surowiecki’s The Wisdom of Crowds link this effect to economic and cultural movements.
Robbins uses the phrase to talk about instances in which the need for social congruence and a sense of safety overpower the individual’s attachment to what is actual or even ethical. The less established one’s sense of self is, the more likely it is that one will rely on a group identity for that sense of self. This may explain why popularity is so acutely important in schools.
In these chapters, Robbins further develops her argument, maintaining that the brain is actually wired in favor of “peer pressure.” Neuroscientist Gregory Berns has observed that differing from the group generates fear signals in the brain. This may aid with social cohesion and self-preservation, but as Robbins goes on to point out, it also inhibits our capacity for independent thought far more than we might like to imagine. The Solomon Asch study (the Asch conformity experiments) suggested that deferring to the group took decision-making pressure off the brain (150). Lemming-like, human beings in the grip of a powerful group identification can be led to make unethical choices, as in the case of colonialism: “Test results reflected subtle cues about social presentation” (135). The need for considerable courage to stand outside the group may explain why so many leaders in our culture were social outcasts.
The “imaginary audience” (137) effect can contribute to the battle between homogeneity and diversity Robbins outlines. Especially when group polarization is in effect, routing one’s self-perception through a group can have a damaging warping effect on an individual’s self-image. Mob mentality not only impedes one’s ability to think realistically, it can negatively impact our self-perception as well. Yet another irony identified by Robbins in this section is the disparity between an education system that entrenches homogeneity and compliance, and the real-world demand for creativity. Robbins points out that for business leaders such as William Taylor, the capacity to think “outside the box” is “good for business” (159). Taylor adds, “The work that matters most is the work of originality, creativity, and experimentation.” (159)
