Professor Stacey Joshua
English 1A
Sep 13, 2010
Nothing can be accomplished without norms or standards. With the development of the society, young people are getting more and more freedom, chasing the individuality. However, freedom is limited and relative. If there is too much freedom for the people, they will display of contempt for the fundamentals of order. In other worlds, a rich social institution needs to be governing by the laws and rules. Anyone who wants to survive in this society must agree and observe these norms. Supposing that everyone persists in their own way, it will result in social confusion. Every thing has a rule, state-owned national law, the home has a plan. The law is a fundamental of a country; the
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Even though too much ego means too much trouble for our society, but some people believe in self-reliance and independence. In Ralph Waldo Emerson's article "Self-Reliance", he claims that "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines,"(265). He thought the man should believe himself was excellent at any time, and the real man should learn how to reject to drift with the stream. However, if most of the people reject to observe disciplines and obey laws, it may be socially destructive. For example, overdo self-reliance will increasing the crimes. Due to poor economic conditions, some people believe themselves to earn "quick cash." Therefore, there was a general increase in the number of "quick cash crime" such as snatching, shop theft and miscellaneous theft. On the other hand, overconfident will harm in the public order seriously. Generally speaking, when we are prevented by an external constraint from acting as we want to act, or when our actions result from causes foreign to our personality, we are not free, and we need to comply with the rules. As the Chinese old saying goes: Nothing can be accomplished without norms or standards, every country, community, company, or family need to built up their own norms, so that to make sure everything run properly. Supposing
Norms are rules of conduct that specify appropriate behavior in a given range of social situations. A norm either prescribes a given type of behavior or forbids it. Norms represent the dos and don’ts of society. These social norms are the social rules that lead us to conform, even though these rules aren’t always defined. Not knowing these social norms can be distressing so we conform only based on what people perceive as being the norm. In the movie The Breakfast Club, the five students of high school stereotypes of a nerd, princess, jock, criminal, and loner, have been kept apart because of social norms. Due to the fact that they were all brought together in Saturday detention, they have to look past their stereotypes and overcome these social norms. For example there is a scene where John, or the criminal, questions what the point or value is of joining clubs. When he does this he challenges social norms that the other students care about. Not only that but he is conforming to his individual norms of being rebellious and to be hated. People like this are the type to live on the streets or in trailer parks. These types of teenagers are likely to have drug addicted, alcoholic, and abusive parents, and these are the teenagers that seem to be pre-determined to become just as bad as they’re parents are…if not worst. John, and others like him tend to be disliked, disrespected and unfortunately treated unfairly by both adults and they’re peers. In the end though John Bender is essential in the movie because he makes the other kids in detention question who they think they are in society, and who they really are. This is when a norm becomes a part of their individual personality, thus making them conform to society. In the end it is revealed that they are all the same because they all have the same norms of each other and the same values of a
Norms in society are the expectations of actions in specific situations. Social norms keep human social relations and behavior stable. Norms are “rules” that have developed within a particular society taking into account its values, culture and way of living. Sometimes, it is even the case that individuals do not have a choice and rarely recognize that fact that social norms have arbitrary origins because they have experienced this during the ongoing process of living (Clinard and Meyer 2011:10). Thus, gender norms are sometimes seen as limiting, disenfranchising and oppressive. People who are in less-favored or less-accepted norms are sometimes pushed to “deviate” from the norm in order to achieve some form of “liberation” from their
In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance,” Emerson calls for each person in society to be wholly true to themselves. He claims that it is most rewarding to the individual and the society for people to believe in one’s own thoughts and not in the thoughts of others. Emerson believes that conformity will ultimately lead to an individual’s demise because by living for others, people are not being true to themselves. Therefore in order to have a well-formed society, citizens should focus inward and have confidence in their own ideas before beginning to look towards other individuals; moreover, Emerson calls individuals not only in “Self-Reliance,” but also in numerous essays to act independently from conformity and to live for themselves.
The rule of law is whereby the government and all those who govern are bound by the law and everyone must follow the law. Rule of law is also known as nomocracy. Government individual officials are not entitled to make any decision which is not in accordance to the law (Paulsen, Calabresi, McConnell & Bray, 2013). All the citizens are governed by the law including those who make the laws. A. V. Dicey has highly advocated for rule of law in modern times and has popularized it. In history the idea of rule of law can be traced back to the ancient civilizations like China, Mesopotamia, and Rome among others.
It was important to use my sociological imagination to make these familiar actions seem strange and foreign. A trend in all of the norms is that, for the most part, people follow the norms because they do not want to face the negative sanctions or have attention drawn to them. The purpose of the negative sanctions is to discourage you from engaging in the same deviant behavior. We only know we did something “wrong” when we receive negative sanctions. On the other hand, positive sanctions are meant to encourage the acceptable behavior. It was interesting to see how students in the dining hall did not question the unspoken rules that everyone followed. All students and employees blindly followed the norms because that is what they are used to. If they engaged their sociological imagination to look at social norms from a different perspective, they would be able to see how much of our life is influenced by them. We adhere to the norms society has set without even realizing or questioning it.
Second, society teaches us to conform by not thinking for ourselves. We are simply told how to solve a problem or accomplish a task. We are never taught why
Whether one realizes it or not, the world we live in is governed by certain expectations and unwritten rules that our society creates. These expected behaviors are called norms. When one establishes the role that they play in society, they are governed by the expectations that society places on that specific role. Norms give order to a society, but is that enough to say that they are good for citizens? Are these norms needed to govern our behavior in a way that our government cannot? Social norms and the effect that they can have on a person or group of people is shown through Shakespeare's The Tempest. The characters in The Tempest are negatively affected by the unwritten social norms that they are expected to follow, and today these
Aristotle once said “At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst. “ Aristotle saw how we as humans were different from other animals; we were able to create these non-existent rules for humans to follow without question. Laws help shape the society we live in, whether they are positive or negative, our morality can come into play when faced with a troubling situation, why should words on paper dictate what we can and cannot achieve? Why is parchment more credible than the humans’ testimony? Should Gods sway the way laws work? These questions are all important when dealing with the creations of rules and regulations.
Throughout life, in any society we develop a sense to conform and adjust to our surroundings but why? Our values in our society determines our norms and why we do the things we do. I recently sought out to break these social conformities that violated the values, and norms we hold as a society. Every society is different and, in every society there are different and similar values, norms, sanctions folkways, and mores. Breaking them up and analyzing them we began to understand why these terms and values are so important to us.
Law is a system of rules that are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior. (Robertson, Crimes against humanity, 90).Laws can be made by a collective legislature or by a single legislator, resulting in statutes, by the executive through decrees and regulations, or by judges through binding precedent, normally in common jurisdictions.
A Quote from, Emerson Self-reliance tells how people should consider themselves, “Insist on yourself; never imitate, your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have an extemporaneous half possession” (Emerson 166). Emerson’s is encouraging people to be self-Reliant and use their own instincts. A person should trust their selves before other; because they are the only ones who can see into their own heart.
Emerson begins his article by talking about the importance of self reliance. He defines self reliance as thinking for oneself and not letting anyone else influence one in any way, shape, or form. As a human being this may be one of the most difficult tasks. Emerson explains that being self reliant can be difficult especially for adults because they are too worried about their reputations and how others will look upon them. Emerson also says, “ Trust thyself” (2). Emerson believes that one should go with his or her gut in everything she or he does. Even if what she or he wants to do goes against the thoughts of others she or he still needs to pursue his or her dreams. The last thing Emerson wants people to do is be embarrassed of what others will think of themselves. People need to throw away others’ thoughts and opinions and follow one's own.
“Rule of Law”, said Dicey in 1885, means “the absolute supremacy or predominance of regular law as opposed to the influence of arbitrary power and excludes the existence of arbitrariness, of prerogative ,or even wide discretionary authority on the part of government.” (THE LAW OF CONSTITUTION 198 (8th ed.)
Every nation today has laws, instituted by the ruling class (throughout this essay, when I mention laws I am referring to legal laws, not moral laws). The
The rule of law represents a challenge to State authority and power, demanding both that power be granted legitimately and that their exercise is according to law. The law is not autonomous but rests on the support of those it governs. Whilst the rule of law places law above everyone, it remains paradoxically subjected to the ultimate judgment of the people. The rule of law is considered the most fundamental doctrines of the constitution of UK. The constitution is said to be founded on the idea of the rule of law.