Paul+B’s+Final+AmEx+2014+Speech

=Title of Speech= Conforming to Society

=Text of Speech=

Life in the 21st century offers a wave of new technology and ideas which is rapidly changing our culture as Americans. As an everyday regular person, I go to school, do my homework, watch T.V., and try to get some sun at the beach. I want you to imagine a scenario for a second. Imagine yourself, with a group of your best friends, hanging out in your neighborhood at around 10 o’clock at night. All of them want to “have a little fun” by teepeeing a disliked teachers house. You start to say no, because you know it is not right, but your friends won’t take no for an answer. What do you do? Do you conform to their idea of fun, or do you stray off the path and be safe by doing the right thing. This brings me to my main point; should we always conform to society, or is it better to embrace being an individual and traveling the road less traveled?  First and foremost, what exactly is the definition of conforming? There are three types of conforming; Compliance, Identification, and Internalization. Compliance is another term for conforming to the common will of the public. Compliance is best shown in the example of conforming in fear of being rejected or conforming for need of approval from the general public or from your peers. Identification is when someone is conforming to someone who is well liked and respected, and tries to imitate them in their actions. This example is shown in daily life, such as someone who is following one popular person in a clique, and tries to act exactly like them because they are convinced that this “popular” person is way better than them, so they must act like them and they will be popular to. This example can also be linked to Compliance because the person following the popular person doesn’t want to feel rejected and left out. The third form of conforming is through Internalization, which is whether or not you will change your moral values in order to conform to the situation, publicly and also privately. I feel that this one occurs most often because we listen to our conscience before we do something, giving us a feeling that it is ok, or that it is not morally right. Especially in today’s society, many people feel the need to reform to the environment around them because they are afraid that they will be “rejected” from society and made an outcast because of their appearance, actions, or lifestyle. In my opinion, conforming to society’s will is a test on your personal morals, and snuffs out the flame of individualism and free thought. If everyone conforms to society, only a few people will still have their humanity so to say, and the rest of the people will be mindless followers which only copy, follow, and almost worship the “role models.” In my opinion, one of the main factors which lead teens to conform today is from peer pressure in a variety of forms. Peer pressure can be spoken by your peers, persuading you to follow along with them and do what they are doing, or it can take the form of unspoken rules which are invisible, yet clear as day for the public. Peer pressure ranges from your “homie” trying to convince you to take drugs, to your friends trying to convince you to go on Goliath at Six Flags. I feel that many people are forced to conform to peer pressure because they are either too scared to say no in fear of being outcasted, or they don’t want to appear like they won’t do anything risky. A minor example that still conveys the point is if you’re going to a movie with your friends. The one who is the natural born leader instantly says after the movie, “The Lord of The Rings was so lame. The only good part was the last fight when the bad guy killed everyone.” I say, muffled by the popcorn, “I liked it, I thought the adventure part was exiting.” Now I don’t know if they can’t make out what I’m trying to say because I’m eating popcorn, or they just don’t care, but my other four friends start to say, “ya, you know, your right natural born leader friend, that movie was dumb.” I sit in stunned silence. That movie was amazing, no need to deny that there were some boring parts, I can see what they are saying a little bit. But to say it was a total waste of time? That’s not right. This shows that even though people don’t feel the same way about something, such as my other friends who probably liked the movie, it doesn’t mean that you have to accept the judgment of the most popular, trendsetter, leader type person. Throughout history, many people face a similar question about conforming to the will of society, or being more like a rugged individual. In a social experiment, Violinist Josh Bell was posing as a beggar with a violin in a metro station to see what the average New Yorker’s reaction would be. People normally pay hundreds of dollars for tickets to his concerts, but in the metro station, everyone avoided him and tried to walk past him as quickly as possible. This shows that the individual, the essence of original culture which founded America, is now being shunned from modern social life, not because he is bland, wears the same cloths every day, has a monotone voice and only cares about work, but because he dares to be different, straying off the path because he wants to have a new experience, and is not welcomed for his open mindedness, but shunned because of it. Siddattha Buddha, once a prince of India, saw the corruption in government and how the poor and the sick were treated in the Indian Caste system. His dad deliberately tried to hide all of this from him because he believed that he wasn’t ready to face the world, and believed that he shouldn’t worry about the people, but focus on himself and become a successful prince. The Buddha resisted the oppression of society and choose to go his own path to help the poor and realize that life is about happiness and becoming one with yourself rather than relying on material things to find pleasure. One of the greatest examples of going against society to forge his own way in the world was Jesus. Jesus taught his teachings of helping the poor, caring for the sick, and walking in the footsteps of God; living to serve and help others. Many of the more traditional people of Judea and the Romans criticized Jesus, saying that he was a problem. They viewed Jesus’ teachings as a way to incite a rebellion in Judea against the Roman Empire occupying Judea at the time. During the Sabbath, hundreds of people from all over went to Jerusalem. Jesus wanted to continue his preaching’s, and further spread his messages of helping the poor and sickly, so he went to Jerusalem to teach. Doing this was a risk on his life however, because he knew that with so many people around, the Romans would be looking for any disruptions, and more importantly, him. Going into Jerusalem, Jesus made a huge risk, and after a short time, was condemned to death by crucifixion because of his teachings. The fact that he knew that he could be caught and killed by the Romans, yet he still continued to preach, displayed intense bravery which strayed from the social norm at the time, which helped many people realize that his teachings about respect and caring for the poor and sick only served to help the world. It helped people realize that sticking to the road doesn’t lead to much change and reform to benefit their lives. Change could be good or bad, but change for a chance at something better is a risk that many people should be willing to take, even if it means straying outside of the social norm to make a big difference in the world. Even in my own life, who says straying from the norm is bad? In fact, why can’t weird be a little fun sometimes? About one and a half years ago, the day after Christmas to be exact, my cousins and I all stayed at one of their houses, to hang out. My cousins and I are normal when we are with our friends at our own houses, but when we get together, we feel so comfortable around each other that we don’t feel the constraints of peer pressure or fitting in to apply to us. We just act on instinct and have fun doing it. On that day, it started to pour rain outside. Most people would shelter inside around a warm fire, but we were eager for adventure. We took all of the scooters we could find from the garage, relearned how to use them because it had been an 8 year gap since last using them, and sped off in a random direction, looking for adventure. We came to a park which was near my cousin’s house, and started finding every hill, vertical bench, jungle gym, and long windy road. Self-acclaiming ourselves the San Marino Scooter gang; with our nice Christmas sweaters tied around our necks like capes in the pouring rain, we found the inner spirit of the individual in us, not caring what the strange old man walking his dog thought as we barely missed him while going 40 miles per hour down a hill, not caring what the residents thought of us as we sped through the neighborhood, finding the 2 mile hill which would send us sprawling into the downtown area, not caring the least bit. You know why? Because it was fun. Not only fun to hang out with my cousins, but also fun to forget about society for a while, to forget about the social norm, to forget about fitting in. What we found that day, was that embracing being an individual, your own person; taking risks and reaping the benefits of happiness and satisfaction, was way more important to us, and way more fun that struggling to fit in. In the America I want to grow old in, I want a generation which is willing to think outside of the box. A generation which doesn’t conform to a single belief, powerful ruler, or influential person, but a generation of free thinkers, open to new ideas and exited to explore the mysteries of the world and hear others opinions. People who don’t feel afraid to be who they are, to express themselves and be proud of their abilities. A society which is accepting, forgiving, and open to new ideas and creativity, not built upon conforming to certain beliefs and values set up by people of a higher status. And forget about peer pressure, forcing people to conform to groups of people; rather, have friends and teens promote new ideas. In the America I grow old in, I don’t want the one person that thinks outside of the box to be considered weird and outcasted, but instead welcomed and listened to. Only by acceptance and open-mindness can people learn the truth about one another, and eventually work together to make the world a better place. That is the America I wish to grow old in, Thank you.

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