The System: “You can’t trust it, man” They want you to conform. Who? Society, government, the system. While the power of authority and social conduct is a strong force, it is not always a benevolent one. For thousands of years people have questioned the ways of authority. These heroes have taken down the establishment, or the elite power holders, and made the world a fairer place in which to live. A common belief is that when the establishment, authority, or the system gains too much power, they need to be removed. This “system” that we all live in is a multidimensional vortex of misunderstanding and oppression. Challenging the system is not a battle that stands alone in the list of fights to be fought. The challenge is similar in …show more content…
Taking down the system shows its face in revolutions. In the American Revolution, around 1776, the Americans thought they were being oppressed by their mother country and authority. Great Britain taxed the colonies without consent which catalyzed tensions between the mother country and her colonies. Consequently, the colonies revolted and sought their independence. Because they were able to claim independence, they could create their own national ideals and promote their own interests. This questioning of authority shows the questioning of old ideas of hoary authority led to social progress for a revitalized group of people. After the Renaissance, science forged many new discoveries and began to question some outdated ideals of religion such as the shape of the earth and it revolved around the sun. Scientists who discovered new planetary relations, such as Galileo, who made monumental advances in science in his time, questioned the authority that was the Catholic Church. Because they questioned authority they were killed for heresy and blasphemy. However, if they had not questioned the authority for what they believed in our knowledge of science would be have changed colossally. In more modern times, the fight against the system stays relevant. In the mid-20th century, many people felt as if they were being challenged by the system to conform to society. The system was personified as “Man.” “The Man” could be
During the 14th century, reforms in culture began developing and eventually led to the rebirth of society. In the Renaissance, people began to shift their focus on the advancements of the individual and human society as a whole. These secular views led people to becoming more educated and break off from the corrupt church. This is the spark of what led into the Scientific Revolution because people wanted to expand their knowledge in a greater procedure. People started to use empiricism in their scientific methods to reach a final decision. This is also known as the Age of Reason, even though people are skeptical of all things that are unproven by mathematics and science. Both religious and political institutions were led by supporters of the development and advancement of science, considering that it would benefit in furthering their position and political interests. WIthin reason, society still had limitations on the ability of people to speak freely of their ideas and be taken seriously.
The collectivist society in which Equality 7-2521 lives within is similar to the Nazi and Communists states of the twentieth century. The leaders of this society do not permit individual thinking, but to be like a fragment in a group whose purpose is to serve its needs. Equality 7-2521 states, “We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever.” (Chapter 1, Page 19) Individuals have no identity of their own, and come to the realization in their society that they are just part of one, large group.
conforming removes conflict. Take away opinions, likes, dislikes, and everyone is happy. Tell the people
The collectivist society in which Equality 7-2521 lives is similar to the Nazi and Communist states of the twentieth century. It is controlled like the society in “The Giver.” The rulers of this society do not permit any individual to think freely. They must think they are nothing. “We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the state. Amen.”(21).
An issue that has been circulating is whether or not to conform. Rob Siltanen says, “... The ones who see things differently. They 're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can 't do is ignore them. Because they change thing.[...]” ( cited) What he says is agreeable because the one that does not conform, will be the one that changes themselves,their society and even their future. This matter is an open topic of debate because one may agree that an individual does not need to conform to society 's ideals in order to find their happiness or be successful in life.
When someone tries to make a person do something, they have the choice not to listen and retaliate. Rules are set in life and you have the power and choice to follow them. No one is stopping you from not following them and they are only something someone is telling you to do, not forcing you. You have the ability to resist what is put against you and that is your choice, not someone else’s. If you were not able to make your own choices, then everyone would be following the rules, and would not have the right to speak out and resist things they don’t want.
The individual must rebel against societal conformity. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” (Emerson-quotesgram.com) People can’t just conform to what everyone else is doing and follow the path that is already made. They have to go where there is no path and make their own trail for others to follow if they want. It may be more difficult than just follow where there is already a path, but sometimes it is better to do things the hard way, because in the end it pays off in different ways. “Simplify, simplify.” (Thoreau 383) If we don’t want to conform to what the society wants, then we have to simplify our lives to make them easier on our own. If people can’t simplify their lives, then they will think that
In today's day and age contemporary society's are built upon the thought of citizen conformity to a prescribed set of values and norms to. This idea of complies to social standards makes one think as to how these norms of fact society as a whole and an individual. The main driving component which draws people too conformity are the desire to be excepted in certain status groups. People fear that if they do not conformity is norms that they will be breaking the social contract therefore been shunned by society at not being able to achieve their personal goals. Further analysis of these forces for conformity in contemporary society it will be shown that these forces produced negative ethical conduct and
But conforming to what the majority is doing because it is deemed as cool is a whole different story. Instead of conforming to keep society running smoothly, we sometimes conform due to fear that we will receive hateful backlash for breaking against the norm or in fear that we will be wrong. Solomon Asch explains the latter reason when he conducted an experiment to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform. In his experiment, there was only one true participant and 4 other fake participants that will help prove his point correct. Cards were shown to everyone where there were lines of different length illustrated. They all had to choose which line was the longest. The first four people at the table were the fake participants and purposely chose the wrong answers. The last person was the true participant in the experiment and in all of the experiments they conducted, the last person always went with what the rest of the group thought even though he knew that the answer was incorrect. After the experiment was conducted, the real participants were interviewed and asked why they went along with everyone else even though they knew the answer was incorrect. “Most of them said that they did not really
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
Conformity wouldn’t be so bad if what there was to conform to was positive. In this great land of the free and home of the Big Mac, forgive me for not putting my admiration or faith into the general public. The society we live in is built on hate and oppression. It dates back all the way to the genocide of the native population by the European invaders----excuse me, “settlers” that allowed this country to be established in the first place, and the slavery that allowed this country’s economy to start up and prosper. Institutionalized racism continues to be prevalent in everyday life; articles on police brutality from twenty years ago might as well have been written last week. Ethnic minorities are targeted and shot down in the streets; young
Education and learning are important in today's society. It seems America has a wonderful education system, but if we think deeply, we can figure out that most part in American education is broken. This is a sad truth that the educational system is not working as is supposed to be. Now it becomes messy and it mostly became a business place where money matters. And people should do something to improve it again. This paper will continue to discuss on education in the United States based on the videos depicting the broken education system, the Common Core, and Dan Rather's analysis of the Detroit Education system.
For some, conformity is an unthinkable evil in American society. All individuals living within a community conform in some way to social norms, yet to label someone a conformist is akin to labeling them ignorant and unoriginal. However, conformity - and its associated impacts - are as integral to the functioning of society as the principles of nonconformity. Conformity is often positively utilised to induce positive social change nationally and internationally. It prompts dissemination of workload, provides protection (‘strength in numbers’), and encourages strict rule enforcement. Although less appreciated than non conformists, conformists and their resulting principles play a vital role in the smooth conduction of society.
Looking into criminal justice procedure, many administrations are at work. Starting with the police, to the courts and concluding in corrections. Though all these sectors have different tasks, their combined focus is processing the law. Regardless what the process is called criminal justice will continue to serve with discretion, conviction, and correction. When first presented with the question whether criminal justice is a system, non-system, and network I leaned toward a network. Throughout our discussions, lectures, and readings I felt the process presented itself as a network. Intertwined divisions working for a common goal. Further into my research and help from Webster, I decided that the criminal justice
To understand why we have a sense of conformity, we must first understand value. “Values are used to learn people’s culture, ideas, and what they want out of life (Henslin 49). Every culture has similar and different values. “Norms are the expectations a group develops concerning the ‘right’ way to reflects its values” (Henslin49). An example of a norm would be personal space and speaking quietly in certain places such as a library. When norms are violated people often begin to question the person’s sanity and well-being based on how extreme the norm violation was.