How Non Conformists Move The World Chapter 1 Summary

Erich Fromm’s essay “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem” suggests that humankind’s evolution has, and continues to rely on man’s capability to exercise disobedience. While discussing the positions of disobedience being considered a vice, and obedience being a virtue, Fromm reflects upon the history of Adam and Eve believing that “eating the forbidden fruit” was man’s first act of disobedience. This is the point that broke the bond between man and nature requiring man to be dependant upon his own powers, while rewarding him with his “complete” humanity, freedom,

Original defined an a noun is, "A thing of singular or unique character; a person who is different from other people in an appealing or interesting way; a person of fresh initiative or inventive capacity. " The reading also noted that there are two routes to achievement; conformity or originality. The interesting part is that no one wants to be a conformist but the world

Anthony Storr says that, “Originality implies being bold enough to go beyond accepted norms “ Social norms imply that everyone is the same or does something the same way, to break that you need to go out of your comfort zone and be bold enough to break those norms. Although it is very common for there to be social norms in society, when someone breaks one it can be the very first step to making the world a better place.

For years, many have questioned the so called “evil” that seems to be inside of people. There have been multiple experiments set to find the answers to these questions. Although, the real question is, why do people act the way they do? Rob Reimen, director of the movie A Few Good Men is about Daniel Kaffee, a military lawyer, who is assigned to defend two Marines accused of murdering Pfc. William Santiago. With the help of Col. Nathan Jessep and Lt. Cdr. JoAnn Galloway, Kaffe brings the accused Marines, Lance Cpl. Harold Dawson and Pfc. Louden Downey, into court to prove that they are not guilty of murder because they were “just following orders” (Reimen). However, why did Dawson and Downey follow the orders, if they knew the result would be hurting another? Why did they not rebel against it? Maybe it was because of the situation, or how obedient the two Marines were, or many it is just the plain and simple evil at work. Nevertheless, two articles that mention the experiments to test this is “The Stanford Prison Experiment” by Philip Zimbardo and “The Perils of Obedience” by Stanley Milgram. The results gathered from these experiments confirms the belief of hidden wickedness inside human beings. Plus Zimbardo himself made an hypothesis that good people can become evil in the blink of an eye. He based this hypothesis on his prison experiment. Both of these authors addresses how their experiments determine how the obedience and the

“The Nonconformist” by Robert I. Brownstein focuses on the idea of conformity through a young boys eyes. It examines limited individuality and a constricted society. Brownstein uses “ The Nonconformist” to reveal that you cannot believe everything you are told. To explore this idea, Brownstein combines characters, setting, point of view and literary techniques.

     Another original concept that this book brought to the attention of the reader is that of foolishness. There are definitely benefits to conformity such as civilized societies and workplaces, however, the author states that very few original ideas come about in a setting of conformity. This creative and even uncomfortable technique can be very effective.

Thoreau displayed non-conformity many times throughout the play. He challenged many standing traditional values of the time including the workplace, religion, and government. Thoreau did not pay his taxes, give to the church or, work for anyone. He was a true transcendentalist figure of the time and pushed people to think deeper than just surface level. One example of Thoreau displaying non-conformity is by him rejecting to pay his taxes.

In recent weeks, quite a bit of attention has been given to the impact nontraditional activists will have on the upcoming presidential election. What do you think are the key issues these activists should require the candidates to speak on and/or clarify their positions about? Feel free to use any issues that have actually been raised if you can recall them.

Furthermore, since the government can artificially create society’s status quo, nonconformists are quite easily isolated and have no capacity to gain support since they are viewed as radical outsiders. For example, the World Controllers in Brave New World take advantage of the principle that “If one’s different, one’s bound to be lonely” (Huxley 128) which stems from the human desire to belong. Individuals who question the practices established by the government will generally still indulge in them so long as it means avoiding social rejection. This precedent is highlighted by the continuous actions of Bernard Marx, another misfit individual in Brave New World, to avoid being left out in social situations despite lacking the common enthusiasm of his peers: “Feeling that it was time for him to do something. Bernard also jumped up and shouted: “I hear him; He’s coming.”

Cultural aspects of everyday life are often difficult for people of dominant cultures to discern because their practices, traditions, values, and understandings are taken for granted.  Mexico is a country that interest me in many different ways, whether it is individualism and collectivism, assertiveness, performance orientation, future orientation or uncertainty avoidance.  There are many similarities of Mexico and the United States, but there are also characteristics that are not so similar. Mexico is known to be collectivistic people, unlike many Americans are individualists.  

Without leaving the social order and societal norms Chris McCandless could not have fully achieved non-conformity and therefore could not achieve individualism. Henry David Thoreau is the author of “Civil Disobedience” who explains the importance of non-conformity. In the excerpt the author is conveying that non-conformity cannot happen in society because the government is brainwashing the people and restricting them from thinking for themselves. Thoreau states, “The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men, but as machines, with their bodies” (3). This quote stated by Thoreau means that the people are the machine not being able to think and only the government can control them causing them to conform to the societal norms.

5. Considering at least two of the concepts listed above, what do you think the speaker could work on for future speeches? Please be specific and use examples from the speech to demonstrate your points. Provide specific suggestions for improvement.

The Boston office of Campbell and Bailyn has seen success over the years but was struck by a collapse in the mortgage backed securities market for six months in 2007.

I am the opposition and I am against human experimentation.I am against human experimentation because it harms people.I say this because multiple people have been murdered by these experiments for over the past 100 years.In the experimentation people have been saved,but the experiment could have had a sin affect that affected the person. The sin affect could then go extremely wrong,and could lead that person to death.

The book I choose to review was called Tribes: we need you to lead us. Which was by written by Seth Godin. The book was published by the Penguin Group in 2008 and is only 151 pages long. Although the book is eight years old it still has relevance to today’s business world. “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us,” is basically a huge motivational speech from Godin that pushes people to find the willingness to be a leader. He uses small sub topic paragraphs to offer self-help advice and a call to action to those who want to lead and make a change.