Standpoint on Conformity: Different Aspects of Compliance

In today's world it is often difficult to adjust to one type of lifestyle or another. The constant bombardment of outside opinions hampers our ability, as humans, to choose and be comfortable with a certain way of living. Our way of living may consist of a look, a way of thinking, a religion, or any facet of our personalities that may not conform to whatever is the norm or the accepted at a given time. When this is the case, we sometimes feel forced to change, thus we are susceptible to blind conformity. Although many might believe that they are striving for individuality, I believe that the term “individuality” just comes down to semantics and that there is not a realistic way out of becoming one of society’s members, or “eaters”. The fact that people want to be alike and to be able to relate to others makes it easier for their personal views to be manipulated by the group norm, sometimes, a look of disapproval can be enough for someone to keep their viewpoints quiet and decide to agree with the majority. Those that believe there is a realistic way out of becoming one of society’s “eaters” would find this an extremely worrying thought because if we were to lose our individuality we would never grow as much as we could as if we let our own thoughts be heard. However, that is the thought processes that people of society are compiled of and people of society will always aspire to be liked by their peers. Ralph Waldo Emerson precedes himself in wisdom in his work, “Self-Reliance”. He states that “Society is a joint-stock company…the virtue in most request is conformity…it loves not realities and creators, but names and customs”, I heartily agree with his standpoint on conformity. Society today encourages many different aspects of compliance, but perhaps the most prominent one is conformity of appearance. There are societal standards for males, females, young and old that make them either ideal or outlying, and most of these standards are dependent upon cosmetic