Louis Alers
11/1/13
Question 1
PHI 115-002

How we are conformed

When kids are younger most parents tell them to be a leader not a follower. They tell us we should try to stand out from the crowd and express ourselves, but as we grow older we want to fit into a group and have friends slowly conforming to the appearance everybody expects of you. So we won’t look weird and can have friends that are also considered normal we try and blend into the crowd as to not draw to much attention to ourselves. Mark Twain stats in his essay that “We are creatures of the outside influences; as a rule we do not think, only “imitate”. I agree with his statement as in that most people can be persuaded to do something they know that isn’t right through peer pressure or other forms of conformity. As we see in everyday society people change based on how the people around them react to them. As stated by Blakeslee “seeing is believing what the group wants you to believe.” People conform to fit in and be part of everybody else. People who are greatly influenced are kids in schools. Particularly high school, where you enter as a young teen and are in class with older kids who you are looking up to and trying to be friends with them so you can be “cool” and not classified as a nerd or weird. Back when I was in high school I remember my freshmen year where I didn’t know anybody in the school and was in a English class with older kids, the teacher asked us a question if we believe our lives are controlled by fate or if we have the freedom to choose, most of the class chose fate and so I wouldn’t have to look weird or be judged upon I chose the same as the majority of the class just so I wouldn’t be looked at weird. As Twain says “… a rule of our self-approval has its source in but one place and not anywhere else – the approval of other people” He is saying that our judgment of our self is based on what other people think of us and we reflect it upon ourselves. We look for approval in others to be confident in ourselves rather than us just have the confidence without the approval of others. Aside from helping us fit in conformity could be negative in a way as well. If people rely on others to choose for them and they just follow others then they won’t have much to look forward to since they will always be following others and just going with the flow. They won’t have a real mind of their own having to rely on others to make decisions for them.