America: Contradiction Much?

[Meg]

I've been thinking. America pushes the ideology of individualism so much and yet what part of society lets you be an individual? At every aspect of our lives we are pushed to conform and listen to authority without objection no matter how stupid the rule is. I think everyone's school has at least one rule that is just stupid and makes no sense. Whenever someone tries to break from the norm and be different they are negatively sanctioned.

Not only that, but look at how we're raised. We're all taught that violence is wrong yet boys are taught that not fighting back is viewed as being weak. So each time a boy is provoked/attacked he is faced with the dilemma of either fighting back and getting arrested, or walking away and being tormented by his peers.

Girls are faced with this to. At a young age girls are taught to smile, look pretty, be girly/ladylike, look pretty, wear makeup, look pretty, dress nicely, and look pretty. Its beaten into our heads and yet people can't understand why girls are so willing to harm themselves in order to fit societies twisted and convoluted definition of "pretty."

-rant over-

So this is what I do in my spare time. Ponder. XD

Any thoughts?

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

I think you've hit the nail on the head. People don't GET the teens these days, and that is a major problem.

 

[Meg]

Oh its not just teens. This applies to everyone of all ages. Especially the first point

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

The point still stands, though.

 

[The crazy demon]

Pffft

This topic should be called "World: Contradiction Much".

Cause this still happends over here where i live.

 

[Meg]

^ I thought about calling it something like that, but not ALL cultures are like this.

 

[cheezMcNASTY]

i think contradiction is in the definition somewhere.

main problem being that most of the citizens here don't care about what they can't see (i.e. war and legislation). we haven't had a meaningful protest since the civil rights movement.

i learned today that there are RIOTS in the UK over legislation.
i say POWER TO YOU. better be violent to communicate what's right than apathetic if you ask me.

 

[Meg]

There's also been riots in France because they raised the retirement age a year or two.

 

[Darth Angelo]

And lets not forget that the origins of America lie in murdering, cheating and oppressing an entire race of people out of their homeland yet America is supposed to be all about freedom and liberty.

 

[The dark knight]

Humanity must be cleansed. Only through the fires of hell and war will humanity come out with an understanding of their sins.

 

[BlueDevil]

Well said, Meg. I am bothered by most aspects of our country. It's a nice place to look at from a distance, but when you're up close, you kind of realize that America is going downhill because of things like this. Tis personally one of the reasons why I'd like to move away.

 

[cheezMcNASTY]

And lets not forget that the origins of America lie in murdering, cheating and oppressing an entire race of people out of their homeland yet America is supposed to be all about freedom and liberty.

no, that's the ironic growth.
the origins of america lie in people fleeing that exact thing happening to them in the mostly the UK, Ireland, and Poland and overthrowing colony control.

but lets not all pick on the easy target, every counry is guilty of doing terrible things: even yours, wherever that may be. (that yours is universal and not necessarily directed at you Darth Angelo)

 

[V]

Hypocrisy is so widespread is might as well be a fundamental aspect of Life, guys. No-one in innocent there. We've all been hypocrites somewhere, at some point.

 

[Meg]

^True, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't point out the flaws we see and try to fix them.

 

[V]

Of course... but I learned it's pointless to get bothered by every hypocrisy out there when I saw it. But society will always require people to conform. We can't by definition have ultimate 'freedom' and a truly 'individualist' society, because one guy's freedom is another's loss, or if everybody were individualist to the point of making up their own rules - i.e. anarchism - well, you know that's too unstable a state for human beings to safely cope with. Just like we don't have real democracy, these things are ideas that can't really exist in the real world with the number of human beings there are now on the planet. Real democracy can exist in a small group or a tribe. Among billions of people, though, it's less feasible. Which is why our 'democracy' is a contradiction-in-terms, but it keeps most people happy to think that they can choose who is gonna dictate to them. It's not democracy though. And then there's the idea that in America anyone can make their fortune. When in reality, only so many people can be rich, because for one to be rich, there has to be someone who is poor in contrast.

Actually I think the 'individualism' thing has been perpetuated alongside consumerism to get people feeling as though they can buy things to express their individualism. Culture itself serves to keep a rein on individualism, perhaps as a means of making people stick together and form peaceful groups where groups made of especially egotistical and individualist individuals wouldn't be so cohesive. And that's good in survival terms, for the species. Not for personal development and enlightenment, though.

 

[Meg]

I'm not saying people shouldn't conform at all. I'm saying creativity and individualism shouldn't get stomped out of people. Grade school is essentially boot camp. I'm not saying we should all be free to do and think as we please, that would be anarchy like you said, but we should be given more freedom than we have and be a loud to think differently without being shunned.

 

[V]

I don't think it's too bad here or in America. Compared to say... China. Where individualism is actually frowned upon in their schools, right from the beginning. And 'free speech' is far less realised. The active suppression of that is actually enforced there as well, right now.

When you say shunned, are you talking about how children treat each other? Or how the school/teachers treat them? When I was in school, it wasn't as though I wasn't allowed to think and say things the way I wanted. I wasn't the social type, though. If I had been, I probably would have been shunned by my peers, and that's just the way kids are. Not by the teachers though, they were impartial, and actually seemed thrilled to find a kid with ideas and something to say. Sure, we had to wear a school uniform, but that just saved me a lot more clothes washing.

 

[Meg]

Oh it could be a hell of a lot worse, but that doesn't mean it should be left alone. Like racism and sexism. If you compare how women and minorities are treated in America and-you're from the UK right?-Europe its a lot better than many other places in the world. However, just saying that something isn't as bad as in other places isn't a great point. Everything is relative after all. That's like saying a broken leg isn't that bad because its not cancer. Well yeah that's true, I would much rather break my leg than get cancer, but that kind of thinking over looks the real issue- my leg is broken and it needs to be fixed.

And when I said shunned I meant both. I realized shunned may not have been the best word choice. Hmm...well anyway. If your school was like that then that's good. However whenever I tried to speak up against something I was pushed back down again. Everyone was. Most schools, in America at least, force students into rigid roles and eliminate creativity and free thinking.

 

[V]

I don't propose people shove things under the carpet, and I don't mean for things to be left alone - I for one think we're still living in the latter Dark Ages. You should always strive for better where better is warranted, but since all we have is our humanity's rather subjective viewpoint to go on, we should try to always maintain perspective by the same token. Still, if you think something's not right, you can always get up and make your voice heard on the subject (where it counts) - if you live in America, you can do that without being locked up, and that's a fantastic thing. You have the power to change things or at least make yourself known. Actually, why don't you? You can.

The thing about school is, I suppose, that it's a foremost a place of compulsory learning, not so much a place of self-expession. I absolutely hated school, and equated it with prison. Particularly high school. There's not much you can do about the way children treat each other, there will always be kids being bullied for being 'different' - I think that's just human nature. Teachers shouldn't try to supress their students' ideas, unless those ideas are directly harmful, but as we know, they have to teach a curriculum as directed by the authorities, and they're bound by restrictions too on what they can and can't teach. The system has many flaws, in that sense. Luckily when you get home you can act yourself.

 

[Meg]

I actually am planning on speaking up about all this. I'm currently writing a short story about all this. Maybe it will be good enough to get published? One can hope. Plus I'm a Speech Communications minor, so hopefully I'll gain the skills I need to be an effective speaker and maybe even persuade some people.

As far as what you said about school. I agree with you.