Humans are complex beings. We have different motivations, goals, and aspirations but what influences us to have these goals? What motivates us to strive for them? Daniel Gilbert, in his essay “Immune to Reality” states we have unconscious processes that influence our behaviors, and also that we heavily rely on acceptance from others. The social pressures we experience on day to day bases are what influence us to change and adapt. Society and how our unconscious perceives the pressures of society make us lose original ideal and make us seek and/or follow power for the sake of belonging to a community. Social pressures make us lose our ideals and force us to conform. We are born into a society with all these rules and social norms that we
They’ll go on a journey that no one will help them with because it’s not the norm. Sure they might find asylum in someone who also rejects the rules of society but feeling acceptance by one person isn’t a community that will fill the need to be accepted. However the social pressures will beat out the comfort felt in the one person. Similarly like rejection, acceptance needs to be from a large diverse group of people to encourage people. It’s uplifting and gives a sense of pride in ones work when you see so many people approve of it. Many times because of how good we feel after changing our ideals to a more socially acceptable one we never notice how much of ourselves we lost from doing so. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Ideally everyone would do what they want, live in bliss, but actually we do already live in bliss because it’s our unconscious that solves the issue of being accepted. Gilbert says, “The benefit of all this unconscious cookery is that it works, but it cost is that it makes us strangers to ourselves.” By “cookery” Gilbert means the process our unconscious goes through to make an experience feel more pleasurable. It rarely crosses our minds when we do something that everyone else is doing. No one ever things, “don’t cross on a white walking man.” It’s our own ignorance of following the norms that makes it easy for our unconscious to change our ideals without affecting us too much. However,
Never will someone say out loud they want to be less than someone else, but we crave a simple structure of power: a person or group on top, while the masses are following. Consequently if someone doesn’t have the qualities to lead, they become a follower. Society is built this way. A good leader will show their followers a goal and set an example for how to obtain that goal. People follow because it gives them purpose to strive for something seemingly obtainable. Gilbert says, “It’s only when we cannot change the experience that we look for ways to change our view of the experience.” Gilbert is speaking of a situation that is initially viewed as an unfavorable one. Having a leader is an experience that is difficult to change especially if there aren’t many choices of leaders available. So even if someone doesn’t completely believe in the leader’s cause, but is still a part of that community, unconsciously it’ll change the way they view the situation because they’re stuck with that leader. So instead of seeing it as an unfavorable situation, the perspective of the follower is changed to see acceptance by the community. This applies to the rest of the community too, even the ones that actually do believe in the cause because they’re still in the unfavorable position of following instead of
... losing the acceptance of a social group, listening to the heart will leave individuals with a feeling of fulfillment and happiness. The socially unacceptable is only unacceptable because there are new ideas society is not use to: “Society opposes the good idea when it is not an accepted routine” (Growth Online). Individuals who listen to their heart have something extra than people who listen to their conscience, which is true self-respect: “The individual’s trust in himself [or herself] is superior in his [or her] trust in the society” (Growth Online).
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." (Robert Frost) In today's world there is no tolerance for the individual thinker. It is not acceptable to modify or bend the rules of society. Society is civilized, and to be civilized there must be rules, regulations and policies that prevent. Individuality leads to a mess of chaos. To prevent disorder, institutions in society keep these rules strongly enforced. Man creates these institutions in order to provide convenience and stability in everyday life. Then instead of man running these institutions, the institutions begin to reverse the role of power and the institutions are running man. He is rendered helpless to what he has created. With the institution in power it has become smarter and stronger than man, working to destroy individuality with the invisible machine running smoothly. Positions of power and authority are given to some. The power changes those who it into an unfeeling, ruthless, cold machine. Also they become part of the institution, forgetting the real purpose of their jobs. Institutions force individuals to bend and mold the standard and give up freedom and individuality. Some individuals are unable to conform when their will to remain creative and self-reliant is too strong; they fight against the current that society and its institutions create. Beating the system is another thing; those who attempt to beat the system are often referred to as romantics because they do not focus on the reality of situations. The system cannot be beat. If one official of an intuition is taken down there will be a many more waiting i...
...ng to hunt the deviations and fail, the decisions the society make are calamitous to them and the ones they love and the norms try to eliminate change, but instead they eliminate themselves and their society.
The world is divided up into numerous things: Countries, states, cities, communities, etc. However, when looking at the big scope of things, one can group the vast amount of people into a society. This society is where the majority lie in the scheme of things - in other words, the common people. Individuals do exist in this society, but they are scarce in a world of conformism. Society’s standards demands an individual to conform, and if the individual refuses they are pushed down by society.
A great example of a non follower is leopard man. He is doing something totally out of the ordinary compared to everyone else. Its also a lot easier to follow and not lead which is also the main reason most people aren't leaders. It's like jumping on a train. It's a lot easier to just jump on and ride instead of driving the train. I think people should stop following and start leading.
Furthermore, sometimes the desire to be accepted is stronger than prevailing conventions. This makes an individual to do things to make him feel accepted in the society. Krakauer compares the people in Alaska and McCandless. He writes, “And I’m sure there are plenty of other Alaskans who had a lot in common with McCandless when they first got here, too, including many of his critics. Which maybe why they’re so hard on him. Maybe McCandless reminds them a little too much of their former selves” (Krakauer 221). In today’s society, an individual confirms itself to what a society wants and expect him or her to be.
Everybody wants to be accepted, yet society is not so forgiving. It bends you and changes you until you are like everyone else. Society depends on conformity and it forces it upon people. In Emerson's Self Reliance, he says "Society is a joint stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater." People are willing to sacrifice their own hopes and freedoms just to get the bread to survive. Although the society that we are living in is different than the one the Emerson's essay, the idea of fitting in still exists today. Although society and our minds make us think a certain way, we should always trust our better judgment instead of just conforming to society.
The definition of conformity is the compliance with social standards and laws in a particular culture, environment, society and time. If this occurs the individual changes their attitudes, beliefs or actions to align more holistically with those in the surrounding groups and environment, as a result of real or perceived group pressure. This is ultimately a direct result of the power which a group has over the individual. There are two types of conformity, normative conformity, and informational conformity. The motivation behind normative conformity is the desire to be liked and accepted in society. This is most widely known as peer pressure. For example, a student begins smoking because their peers
There are some human phenomena, which seem to be the result of individual actions and personal decisions. Yet, these phenomena are often - on closer inspection – as much a result of social factors as of psychological ones.
In outward conformity and in inward questioning, there is the power, the ability, and the motive to see and accept change. This change can be brought out by the tension that takes place between the two, and that change is the identity of a person; it is the difference between myself and the crowd. This realization can transform the world in a different sense: the sense of character.
In the article The Desire To FIt in is the Root of All Wrongdoing by Christopher Freiman, the theme of fitting in, and how it's wrong is presented by a man who figured out people will do what you tell them if they feel lesser than you. All throughout the history we see mankind do wrongful acts but, why do we? Well, many people would say that the reason people do cruel things for others isn't because we “we care to little about others; it's that we care too much. To be more specific we care too much about how other view us, even if it means doing the wrong thing. The person doing wrong actions due to pressure in society is just as guilty as the person making them feel obligated. The reason people are willing to do this is because they “don't
The quest for power can lead to unimaginable beliefs. This is shown in “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” by Nathaniel Hawthorne when his guests say, “he rattled forth full-throated sentences about patriotism, national glory, and the people’s right;” This shows that when people get a chance all they do is look for power and ways to get more powerful and more money. Another example would be when Hawthorne says, “As for the Widow Wycherly, she stood before the mirror curtseying and simpering to her own image.” When people get something that makes them happy and excited, all they do is just ask for more. Lastly, Hawthorne said, “Medbourne was involved in a calculation of dollars and cents, with which was strangely intermingled a project for supplying the East Indies with ice, by harnessing a team of whales to the polar icebergs.”
Leaders have responsibilities to their people; a responsibility to protect and to nurture them. Leaders can reject their citizens needs because they believe that their wants are more important end up destroying the very society they rule. As shown in the novel Lord of the Flies when Jack rejects his responsibility of nurturing and giving the boys a home because he believes his lust for power, which provides him with a sense of security, is more important than the needs of the boys for affection and protection, allowing him to use the boys as objects to accomplish his own desires. This eventually leads to the destruction of society.
How do the actions and words of a society affect the way people act? In Never Let Me Go, author Kazuo Ishiguro depicts a society in which individuality is threatened by the pressure to conform through methods such as peer pressure and social expectations. Without a doubt, peer pressure is most commonly found in schools today just as social expectations are suffocating the middle class’ desire to become their own unique person.
And might not knowing why they are the way they are, why they do the things they do, why they live the way they live and in the place they live, why the things that happen to them happened, lead these people to a different relationship with the world, a more demanding relationship, a relationship in which they are not victims all the time of every bad idea that flits across the mind of the world?” (Kincaid