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Effect of norms in society
The challenge of freedom
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As Descartes once said, “ Cogito ergo sum” , which translates I think therefore I am, advocates rationalization implies one's existence.(Stanford Encyclopedia) Historical myths advocate that human race attained existence when they rationally challenged the Divine who created them. One could argue that the whole purpose of existence is to progress through rational thinking . An individual embraces their true self with the help of the intellect. The Divine has bestowed upon the individual the freedom to disobey, go against, and even retaliate against irrational laws and morals. If one does not utilize the freedom of retaliation, an individual betrays their true nature of the self. If an individual gives into societal compliance and refuses to challenge popular ideology, one is betraying their true self. For, the true nature of an individual is non-compliance, compliance was placed to rob individuals of the freedom to think. The modern society have pillaged individuals from being true to themselves. Individuals, who live up to societal expectations, suffer a great deal of humiliation. Individuals are forced to exist to meet expectations the world has acquired of them. The world has placed societal roles for individual on the sole argument of order. Dictates of society has proven to destroy individuals by instructing their intellect. To Acquire the status of a dictator in society , one must rebel against the popular notion of compliance Therefore, an individual must thrive to non-conformity.
History has bestowed repugnance upon individuals who promote truth. The United States history textbooks are full of heroes glorifying the intellect of the majority. American presidents throughout history followed the appeal to...
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...s rebelled against the British government. The nation of Israel is a perfect fruit from the labor of Moses. If Moses had not retaliated the land of Israel would not have existed. For Moses, to abandon Egypt, was a tough existential choice,but self-reliance gave Moses an opportunity to be genuine with himself. Society always thrives to portray the ideal man who lives up to societal expectation. The Irony is the birth of non-conformist individual who retaliates against societies expectations.
Works Cited
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance." World of Ideas 8e I-claim. Boston: Bedford/st Martins, 2009. 256-67. Print.
Frankl, Viktor E. Man's Search for Meaning. Boston: Beacon, 2006. Print.
Fromm, Erich. "The Individual in the Chains of Illusion." World of Ideas 8e I-claim. Boston: Bedford/st Martins, 2009. 325-35. Print.
Andrew Jackson, revered as the first common man to become President, symbolized the average citizen having the opportunity to climb the ranks within America 's democratic system. However, the profits of Jackson 's administration succeed in concealing his immoral procedures and behavior. Jackson 's methods worked accordingly to the reasoning of the father of political science, Machiavelli, who said, “The end justifies the means”. He achiev...
America is a nation that is often glorified in textbooks as a nation of freedom, yet history shows a different, more radical viewpoint. In Howard Zinn’s A People's History of the United States, we take a look at American history through a different lens, one that is not focused on over glorifying our history, but giving us history through the eyes of the people. “This is a nation of inconsistencies”, as so eloquently put by Mary Elizabeth Lease highlights a nation of people who exploited and sought to keep down those who they saw as inferior, reminding us of more than just one view on a nation’s history, especially from people and a gender who have not had an easy ride.
Winston Churchill is misattributed with the proverb “History is written by the victors” this is easily seen within most history classes of the U.S. The lessons that are reiterated to the youth of the country remain carefully ethnocentric to preserve the image of America the Great. Beginning in grade school “American” students are taught to celebrate the moments of Anglo colonialism viewing them as glorious events in the building of the country, although they are mostly devoid of any mention of the marginalized groups of people whose back the country was built upon it is continued to be called the Melting Pot. While history textbooks will go on to tell the tales of Stephen F. Austin and Davey Crockett the achievements
In Sophocles' Oedipus as well as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the main character embarks on a journey to self-discovery, ultimately gaining the knowledge of his own flaws. Yet the differences in their failings cause the two characters to have very different endings. After Oedipus learns of his true identity, he realizes that he has cursed himself with his arrogance and pride, and the play ends tragically. Sir Gawain, on the other hand, has good reason for his mistakes as he simply fears for his own life and his story ends on a lighter note. While self-discovery can humble a character, the nature of his flaws ultimately determine his end.
The United States has gone through dynamic changes over the past 153 years, and since the 242 years since gaining independence. These changes enabled much progress in our society and our way of thinking. Because of this, we can not truly judge the opinions and cultures of the past; however, it does not change the fact that we must reflect on the past and understand what our ancestors did wrong. We have a responsibility to rise above our past, and that can only be achieved by studying it and determining whether what may have been a necessary evil for them is today something that can be accepted in our modern world. However, some actions, no matter the society and time, have no excuse; of these things without any pardon is the institution of
Hypothesis: “We hypothesize that the performance of individual members in such situations is likely to be highest when the members hold both individualist and collectivist orientations toward their work” (Hollenbeck, Humphrey, Meyer, Wagner, 2012, pg. 947).
The idea of Individualism can be traced all the way back to England before America’s existence. As we know, individualism has been interpreted in many forms throughout history. The 19th century is no different, taking hold of its own idea of individualism, called transcendentalism. Transcendentalism suggests freedom should not be confined to those focused on money and superficial gains. Instead, people should depend on no one but themselves. This movement focused on “greater individualism against conformity” (Corbett et al.). Heavily influenced by the Romantic period, transcendentalism adopted the belief that reason was more important than logic as Benjamin Franklin has believed. Reason must also include unique emotion and spirit (Corbett et
Freud, S., & Strachey, J. (19621960). The Ego and the Super-ego. The ego and the id (pp. 19-20). New York: Norton.
In “A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality” John Perry conveys conversations between a philosopher and her two friends a few nights before she dies. We then come to how the dying philosopher is trying to have everyone convince her that she will survive even after her body dies. In this John Perry claims that there are three ways of deliberating personal identity: bodily identity, psychological continuity and immaterial soul. The essay then describes the different types of identity and how they can use them to prove to the perishing philosopher that she can still remain alive. I will argue that the only way we can distinguish personal identity is through psychological continuity and how we can determine a person based on their memories and experiences. From this we can go into discussion about some terms that will be used throughout this paper.
In the recent weeks, I have noticed a trend in our cultural beliefs regarding groups outside of our own. As a nation, while the United States has a strongly individualistic nature from a personal perspective, there is also a strong collectivist belief regarding everyone outside of themselves and their groups. Rather than believing that each member of an external group is responsible for their decisions alone (myth of individualism), separating them from a collective (one bad apple), the consensus is generally geared opposite. For example, the belief that all immigrants want to steal American jobs, when one is not an immigrant, or that feminists are actually misandrists, when one is not a feminist. What I believe we have
James Loewen wrote the book ?Lies My Teacher Told ME? to help the students of the United States become aware of their true history. This book attempts to show how and why American history has been taught the way it has without regard for the truth. Mr. Loewen had compared twelve different history textbooks they are: The Great Republic, The American Way, Land of Promise, Rise of the American Nation, Challenge of Freedom, American Adventures, Discovering American History, The American Tradition, Life and Liberty, The United States ? A History of the Republic, Triumph of the American Nation and The American Pageant. Loewen has argued his cases for Heroification, Euorcentrism and the first settlers, and Racism in our history. He has done this knowing fully that most people do not want to know the harsh realities of our nations past. The United States has tried to maintain a positive image throughout history. Unfortunately, it has many skeletons in its closet that need to come out to heal this great nation on many levels. If the public at large new the real role of racism in our nations infancy and how men tried to pursue their way of thinking as opposed to what is good for the country they would be ashamed at what the United States has stood for in the past.
In the past, individual’s identities were often assigned to them by the hegemonic culture, largely based on their conceptualization of sameness. The hegemonic culture dominated identity discourse by drawing distinct boundaries between racial and cultural groups, separating and defining them. Modern discourse however, has seen individuals taking the power of assigning identity signifiers for themselves often in periods of great social change. While times of resistance are often the most easily recalled examples of this, subtle trends in society a tremendous impact, often without the conscience knowledge of the society. In the past two decades, Western Culture has been witness to a radical transformation in identification processes. Technology has become increasingly pivotal to popular culture, and as such, it has had a profound influence on the way we create and affirm our sense-of-self. Identification categories have become less rigid compared to thirty years ago, and people are on average more open to identifying across boundaries. The process of blurring identity lines between distinct groups has re-distributed the power of assigning signifiers from the hegemonic element of popular culture to the individual. Means of instant information distribution and exchange, discourse and academic retrieval, such as instant messengers, social networking sites, Wikipedia, et al are perhaps some of the most influential because of their instantaneousness. While the lines have become blurred on a social level, individual identities are often affirmed.
As the first chapter in this long analytical book, chapter one serves as the foundation for the rest of the novel, with a basic premise that “history textbooks make fool out of the students.” It shows how portrayal of historical figures and events in the best light for the reputation of United States leads to biased and distorted historical education.
Johnston, Mark. 1995. "Self Deception and the Nature of the Mind", in C. MacDonald and G. MacDonald (eds) Philosophy of Psychology. Debates on Psychological Explanation: 433-460. Basil Blackwell.
On chapter 4 on the textbook, the author explains, “culture provides a member of a society with a common bond, a sense that we see certain facets of society in similar ways. We are living together at all depends on the fact that members of a society share a certain amount of cultural knowledge (Ch4, 132). Individualism and collectivism contribute greatly to the dimension of culture. For example, how many members of the culture define themselves apart from their group memberships. In individualist cultures, people are expected to develop and display their individual personalities and to choose their own affiliations. In collectivist cultures, people are defined and act mostly as a member of a long-term group, such as the family, a religious group, an age cohort, a town, or a profession, among others. This dimension was found to move towards the individualist end of the spectrum with increasing