Conformity and Society

Discussion in 'Human Science' started by caffeine_fubar, Mar 10, 2005.

  1. caffeine_fubar Dark Dementia is my name... Registered Senior Member

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    287
    What is it with society and the way people conform so much? Everyone looks, acts, dresses, thinks, and.. smells... the same.

    Why do people have a natural tendency to conform to one another? This isnt as evident in adults as it is in teenagers and highschool students generally, but it's still there.

    Speaking of highschool students, has anyone ever noticed that they split into different groups and then conform to one another.

    The so called "Goth" kids want to be different but then end up being all the same as they pick the same method as everyone else that is "Goth". This is true for all people.

    Maybe... Is conformity a trap? Once you realize that you are following the footsteps and looks of other people, you try to be different, but you end up being just like some other group that has tried to be different? Maybe conformity, the word, was created so that we would have something serious to think about. Something that we think exists that really doesnt. I know that doesnt make sense, but if you look at it from my point of view, you may get what i'm talking about.

    Conformity. I am going to begin doing some research on this natural, possibly instinctive thing. Maybe you all can give me some tips on what books to use, and/or websites to go to.

    Thanks!

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    I will post any interesting things i find... but my biggest question is this:

    Does conformity lead to anger and hatred of other people in different groups? Nerds are picked on by so many people in highschool, but what makes them a nerd? Why are they picked on? Is it because people have conformed to their friends, and pick up those habits to destroy others who aren't alike them?

    Question: How does conformity contribute to anger and hatred, and society's downfall, if infact it does?
     
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  3. duendy Registered Senior Member

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    how?..........it swallows un individuality. take nazism in WW2 Germany. to NOt conform there meant alsmost assured death. so various peoples had to go underground to survive, and of course get the hell out

    you have religious conformity which is just as viscious as been shown throughout history. That if you question it, your nonconformity was labelled as heresy, and you could be exiled, imprisoned, tortured, and murdered.

    You are speaking abut our so-called peaceful times right? Where in your colleges you got the different conformist groups...the 'goths' 'frats' etc and then you have those labelled 'nerds' cause they dont fit in any group? is that how you woul define them?

    remember Columbine school massacre. wasn't that about a couple of 'freaks' who all the jocks persecuted. and they pickd on the wrong two....! so yeah, conformity is EXTREMELY dangrous, and sucks out all creaTIVITY. ie., a person is fearful of expressing emotions not favoured by the particular group, or weraing cloths not favoured, etc

    there are places here that if you dont look at certain way you would be a target and violence could be done to you. these areas are usually working class, and the uniform is an imprt from the States....sports, trainers, baseball caps......the most easiest nonconformist places i feel are the cosmopolitan areas...usually villages near inner city. and the country also......if you got the dosh to not have to live in a gossipy village

    people con-form so as they feel they will fit in. can identify with a group. it's really scary seeing old photos of the beginnings of last centrury and before where all the classes had the exqact same clothes on

    also conformity includes emotions. for example yong men are made to feel they have to conform to not showing feelings.....The suicide rate amongst young men is high, and this will be a major cause no doubt. that and worries about thier sexuality
     
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  5. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    If you're planning to do a research paper on this subject, the first thing you should do is try to define, precisely, what you (and others?) mean by the term "society". It's not so simple a concept as you might think.

    And to talk or write about people conforming to "society", don't you have to know what that is? If not, to what are the people conforming to?

    Is there only one "society" in, say, New York City? If so, what is it and how is it defined?

    Take that same idea with, say, the United States ...people are always saying things like "...American society is...", but they never tell you what that "society" is or means. Is the "society" in New York City the same "society" as is in, say, California? If so, what is it and how is it defined?

    The concept of "society" is a damned difficult subject ...which is why people avoid defining it. Oh, they like to talk about it, they like to write about it, they like to condemn it, ...but neither they nor anyone else can actually, precisely define what it is they're really talking about, writing about or condemning.

    Give it a try ....just to test your ideas, of course.

    Baron Max
     
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  7. vslayer Registered Senior Member

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    well my group being closest to what you would call the goths, i can tell you that we didnt try to be different, we just all hated rap, hated overcomericalised views which the others conformed to, and felt that they were dickheads in general.

    tha fact that we all liked death metal and black clothes while hating america is what made us form our group. there was no conformity
     
  8. duendy Registered Senior Member

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    of course it's conformity. all dressing in black and listening to the same death metal. are u jokin me?
     
  9. TruthSeeker Fancy Virtual Reality Monkey Valued Senior Member

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    Conformity and aculturation are very much related.
    Ok, so let's see... what is the best way to control people? Simple: by not letting them know they are being controlled. This is what our "culture" does.

    It is really very simple. We reach puberty, go to high school and try to find a mate, just like all the other animals. So we see this "cool" "culture" which says: "being dumb is cool", being stupid is cool", "being violent is cool", "being apathetic is cool" and so on, and we try to fit in, so that we can find a mate. We destroy our own individuality so that we can belong and pass our genes. This "culture" actually rewards you for destroying your own individuality and becoming completely apathetic to things such as politics, which are often seen as nerd-culture, uncool and unatractive to the chicks. This culture is highly controlled and fabricated by the media, which, being endorsed by governments, brainwashes people and makes them believe that it is their culture.

    Holy cow..... this world is so full of shit.......

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  10. vslayer Registered Senior Member

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    we had formed our views long before the "group" emerged, just the way it should be
     
  11. duendy Registered Senior Member

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    6,585
    so did the nazis!
     
  12. Dr Lou Natic Unnecessary Surgeon Registered Senior Member

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    Everyone who is a homo-sapien conforms.
    We by nature mimic others, it's a huge part of our development as individuals. Thats how we become people.
    If you didn't conform you couldn't become a fully developed person.
    Some are just really open and blatant with it and can be kind of irritating to those who are more covert and try to put their own little unique twist on their conformity.
    The very act of being against conformity and speaking out against it is a form of conformity. You're not the first, you've seen or heard someone doing that and you liked the way it sounded or how that person came across so you borrowed that style to enhance yourself.

    I'm honestly in real life about the most original "trendsetter" I know of, everyone I come into contact with visibly starts trying to be more like me, thats the truth, there's no non-arrogant way to put it. People conform to me. Everyone notices it.
    Even girls I meet will start acting like me eventually and thus become boy like and unattractive. It's a real problem.
    If anyone has an excuse to wail on about conformity it's me.
    But, everything about me is borrowed too, from tv and appealing characters I've met along the way.
    I've just managed to sort my influences into a seemingly original package.
    Many can't. These are usually the ones who piss and moan about conformity (ie goths) and still others can't be fucked trying, they just want to be accepted by the crowd, and so they mimic the crowd. These are the ones who the goths despise.

    I don't know what the big deal is, it's what people, and all their close relatives in the animal kingdom, do.
    Being the kind of animal that mimics what it sees is what allowed us to become so complicated. All the nuances of being human could never be hardwired, we had to be set up in such a way that would allow us to grow in complexity during our development.
     
  13. duendy Registered Senior Member

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    6,585
    alright, i understand you. but take this example.......say that everyone is shouting to go to war, and i dont. am i conforming or nonconforming?
    i obviously wouldn't be on my own, there would be others who were against going to war. so am i conforming or nonconforming?
     
  14. Dr Lou Natic Unnecessary Surgeon Registered Senior Member

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    5,574
    Ahhh, thats the most prominent and flagrant case of conforming we see today.
    It's excessively odd that you would try to use that as an example.
     
  15. Jaybee from his cast Banned Banned

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    373
    There is nothing cooler, even to the herd, than standing ABOVE the herd - in whatever walk of life.


    Jaybee
     
  16. duendy Registered Senior Member

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    errrm. am i missing soemthing here doc. i asked you a question. what does this reponse mean? please elaborate what you mean.
     
  17. Dr Lou Natic Unnecessary Surgeon Registered Senior Member

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    Is being anti-war conforming?
    Was that the question?
    Ofcourse it is.
    It's such a good example of conforming I would have used it as an aid in my case if I needed one.
    There's the stuffy old boring guys on the news who are pro war, then there's the cool hipsters with the zany hairdos who radly make fun of the pro war guys with their scathingly sarcastic and humourous comments.
    Siding with the anti-war crowd is what any mindless youngster is obviously going to do.
    It's like pot smoking, on one side bob marley is promoting weed while some square panted robot is warning parents of it's evils on 60 minutes, who will the teenagers want to mimic?

    In doing so they're conforming.
    Which isn't to say some don't manage to establish sound reasoning for their position, but thats after the conformity.
    You can find a way to justify anything, and I mean anything, the justifications will come and start making perfect sense and be irrefutably correct, from your perspective.
    You just need to choose what kind of person to be first.
    And your decisions are aided by the personalities you encounter in your life and the impressions they leave on you.
    Everyone basically forms an image of the ideal person and thats who they try to be. It's all largely sub-conscious. Don't think "I don't do that", you do, you don't realise but that's how it works.

    Ofcourse, an equally powerful force to the conformity is it's opposing force. The revolsion.
    Sometimes it's more you DON'T want to be like guy X because you find him extremely unappealing, and so you try to be as opposite as you can. But you'll still usually be loosely crafting yourself on someone else or a desired cocktail of others who weren't like that guy.
    I guess true "conformos" are the ones who base themself on large groups of people. There are people who just have no desire to be anything other than an unnoticable clone within the herd. Now I think about it you really can notice these people, like create-a-characters on sports video games. They always just lack a little unidentifyable something compared to the real characters.
    It's a fairly safe route, meaningless friendships and sexual relationships are practically assured. But you'll never be anyones best friend or the guy who the girls want to fuck more than anyone else.
    It takes something of an ego to not be a conformist.
    It's the disability to accept not being better than the vast majority.
    Sometimes, it's valid.
    Othertimes, it's not, to a fist-bitingly embarrassing degree. Unconformos often fail and end up actually being inferior to the herd.
    When goths prove that to themselves they predictably become quite bitter.
     
  18. duendy Registered Senior Member

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    hold on a mo....not ALL people against war are your 'conformist view' idea of the Hippie with the long dreads and spliff. the many that walked against the Iraqi warwerer a very diverse looking group of people...

    and whence somes the very TERM 'conformist'?

    in the Chamber's Dictionary 'nonconformist' is defined: one who does not conform: esp. one who refused to conform or subscribe to the Act of Uniformity in 1662; usu. applied in england 9cap.) to a Protestant separated from the Church of England"

    okayyyy. this can help us a bit. nonconformity is not conforming to the ESTABLISHED paradigm. what do you say?
     
  19. Glenn Gould Registered Member

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    15
    Non-conformity is rare, but it happens in every society to some extent. Most of the great revolutionaries in history have been non-conformists, but also many evil and corrupted leaders. So it can be a force for good or evil, or both I suppose.
    Broadly speaking, it seems non-conformity is rarer now than in the past. The pressures to conform are practically impossible to get away from. And because they "get you" in the formative years (mostly through school and the media) conformity to what's perceived to be "desirable" and "cool" by society is almost inevitable.
     
  20. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    23,053
    Well, I sorta' like it. But then it begs the question of WHICH "established" paradigm? I.e., if a devote Muslim is conforming to established norms of his religion and his culture, but he's in Podunk, Arkansas, is he conforming or not?

    See? The "society" is an all-important part of this "conforming". But where and what is "society"?

    I live in Texas and I can assure you that we have many more than one "society". How 'bout New York City? ...how many "societies" does NYC have? And if one doesn't conform to one, are they, perhaps, conforming to another society?

    Conforming or not isn't so simple, is it?

    Baron Max
     
  21. duendy Registered Senior Member

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    Like i say.......is societies SO different in the modern world. whats the overlaying conformist fist would you say?.......hint hint
     
  22. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    I have absolutely no idea what you just typed above? Is all of the spelling correct?

    What's an "SO"?

    And did you type "societies" when you meant "society's"?

    And whats an "overlaying conformist fist"?

    No, you don't have to answer me in English, but it would be nice to help educate someone, don't you think?

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    Baron Max
     
  23. psikeyhackr Live Long and Suffer Valued Senior Member

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    Are you talking about IBM?

    Imperial Benevolent Malevalence

    Have to put up with crap for a while to get into the computer biz.
     

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