Both obedience and conformity cause people to act in different ways. In some cases these can produce positive results in others people will rebel and the ideas of obedience and conformity can prove very dangerous. In schools and classrooms you see students who challenge authority and go against obedience. They have an instinct to rebel, you place rules in front of them and they run right through the teachers guidelines and rules. On teams and in school or jobs you have people rebel because they don’t like being conformed.
Teachers often misinterpreted their behaviour as threatening when no threat was intended. When teachers acted upon this, pupils responded negatively and further conflict resulted. Gilborn concluded that much of the conflict between white teachers and black pupils stems from racial stereotypes teachers hold rather than the pupils’ actual behaviour. Teachers were less likely to see pupils from other ethnic backgrounds as a threat or to punish them, even if they behaved in the same way as the black pupils. The term ethnocentric describes an attitude or policy that gives priority to the culture of one particular ethnic group while disregarding others.
Though many people may dismiss 1984 by George Orwell to be offensive, it is necessary to read because it challenges the reader to question authority. 1984 offers an important opportunity for young men and women to acquire who they are going to be when they grow up. The ability to question authority is often overlooked in today’s society. From the time we were able to crawl and speak, we are ruled by some set of rules that prevent us from synthesizing our own thoughts and actions. It is those who decide to question authority that rise above the majority of people and proceed to greater things.
Each country, especially the United States, had an almost isolationistic view of their role in the world. Today, however, we face the challenge of enemies who do not think rationally and will die for what they think is the greater good, so the view of seclusion is not longer valid. The suicidal attitude of these new adversaries makes these types of people’s actions very hard to predict and track which leads to a danger that is unpredictable and around which we cannot devise a defensive plan. Another idea is that the civilized world believes that the economically developed countries take care of the less developed countries. In an article written by James G. Pradke called “Idealism vs. Realism: a Modern Approach to Capitalism Vs. Socialism,” dated April 16, 2010, he quoted Merriam-Webster’s dictionary (2010) which “claims that realism dismisses idealization and presents a theory which focuses on concern for fact or reality while rejecting
Does Power Corrupt? Lord Acton has said that “Power Corrupts and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”. The abuse of power by those in power has caused great suffering and is one of the most common themes of history and politics. But unfortunately the list of leaders who were not eventually corrupted by their power is rather short and it seems to be a fundamental human fallacy that people are seduced by power and once they conquer it, it corrupts their character. Resisting the temptation to abuse one’s power is a challenge that only few people live up to if given the chance to do so without danger.
Non-Violent Protest Conflicts and war often happen because people try to solve disagreements and fight for a change through violent means. The problem of using violent confrontation strategies is that people quickly escalate to the point where their only concerns are victory, vengeance, and self-defense. In these cases, the moral arguments of people who are being unjustly treated become irrelevant. That is because most of the people tend to think of nonviolence as ineffectual, the weapon of the weak while in fact, it is the most effective and proper way in solving a disagreement or achieving protestors’ goal. Non-violent resistance strategies are designed to avoid bloody conflicts by absolutely refusing to be drawn into a violent confrontation.
For example, the majority could make the minority feel uncomfortable about disagreeing, as we see in Asch’s study. Or the majority could even force them too with fear and power, as the Nazis did to so many Germans; they used scaremongering to enforce conformity. This is type of conformity is driven by the basic need to feel accepted and to have companionship with other people, the majority. Informational Social Influence This is where someone conforms to a view because they believe it to be correct. This is associated with Internalisation (conforming because you have accepted a group’s views and they now fit with your own beliefs).
They create their own rules and expect people to abide by them, with those that do not being punished. School bullies and dictators do not want to be seen as softhearted, so they are very strict with their rules and consequences. As time passes on and a school bully’s or dictator’s reign becomes longer, they begin to believe their rules are the only rules that exist and forget about the actual law. Soon, they think their laws are the only laws that exist; this causes them to break the regular law or school rules frequently. Dictators can bribe government officials to stay out of trouble, while school bullies can bribe their principal to avoid inconveniences.
Ignorance and fear are also strong influences simply because people fear what they do not know. Stereotyping may be more influential than anything else. Stereotypes are prevalent everywhere and in everything. When people are grouped into categories, regardless of what they might be, prejudice will most likely occur, and through prejudice comes discrimination. (Wright, 2013) • How is discrimination faced by one identity group (race,
Didacticism is used in this excerpt. The author wants to teach the audience a lesson; Act when you have to, because action is better than inaction. Furthermore, this theme could be used in my life often. If at school, someone is being teased I could react and try to stop it, or I could just walk away, but it is smarter to act right away. I once came across this kind of situation where two of my friends were fighting about something very insignificant.