“Conformity” is a dirty word to Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is the death of the individual, he says, the enemy of originality. Indeed, the development of the individual self is one side of the human experience. But to reject conformity offhand is to forfeit the other side of that experience – the individual’s participation in the community. Self-awareness may be a uniquely human faculty among all of Earth’s animals, but so, too, is the formation of complex society. Total sacrifice of the self in the name of societal submission would be a horrifying perversion of human nature. On the same lines, however, the total rejection of conformity in the pursuit of self-reliance is not only impossible, it is a devastating sacrifice of the human experience.
The hypocrisy of Emerson’s argument is obvious: he urges others to rely on his advice to rely on the self. What is less obvious is the conformity inherent in Emerson’s piece. Let us take for example the conformity that allows for the very existence Emerson’s piece: language itself. As the original linguist Ferdinand de Saussure established, language “is the social side of speech, outside the individual who can never create nor modify it by himself; it exists only by virtue of some sort of contract signed by the members of a community.” Language is inherently conformist. A single individual cannot create a language – one cannot simply begin calling a person a banana and expect to be understood. Where would Emerson be without the use of a conformist, community-based language? He would be telling everyone to rely on their own bananas and the Dole Corporation would be raking it in. Where, indeed, would any individual be without such linguistic conformity?
The Essay on The Human Side Of Management
Any organization in dire straits is always attributed to bad management. This is usually the tendency inasmuch individuals composing the organization tend to look up to to those managing as all encompassing super human. Managers are often thought of as skillful in all technical aspects of running the organization or company and is expected to deliver monetary benefits to the company. They are also ...
The individual’s reliance on conformity to social norms extends far beyond the basic use of an established language. Language is the vehicle for human interaction, but furthermore, this social interaction is the very essence of human existence. Saussure believed that there was no real thought before language was created to express it. Only when they are granted linguistic value do ideas gain any real meaning. Take, for example, a small child raised in the wilderness, free from the conforming pressures of society. Without fellow humans sharing a common language, the child has no forum to develop complex thoughts. Her life would consist of sheer animal instinct. Emerson’s ideas in Self Reliance, then, only become significant when they are expressed in language and distributed to other humans. Emerson even resorts to using a fairly conformist medium – the written essay – to create and disseminate these thoughts.
It follows that if thought is not viable without language, and language is the chief instrument for interactions between humans, then participation in community interaction is necessary to thought itself. It is the building of ideas, the mind-play, the debate and interaction between many minds that creates great thought, and indeed, great individuals. Henry David Thoreau may be Emerson’s self-reliant ideal, but he was an isolated man, removed from social interaction and an entire world of intellectual inspiration. In their pursuit of the self, Emerson and Thoreau deprived themselves of the most essential aspect of the human experience – other humans. Of course, the particular viewpoints, feelings, and experiences of the individual are extremely important – but sharing one’s own individuality with others, and drawing on the experiences of other individuals in the community, is equally important. And while the personal discovery of one’s true ideals and values can be extremely rewarding, it is important to consider the social contributions of the entire community, which encompasses a breadth of thoughts and experiences that the particular individual could not possibly fathom without the help of others. The formation of the individual should be a mix of personal experience and open-minded learning from others in the human community.
The Essay on Adapting adult language and interactions
Explain how adapting adult language and interactions can support a child’s behaviour, emotional, social skills, as well as support their communication development The amount and style of adult talk can greatly influence the environment and how accessible it is to children with speech, language or communication needs. Giving children time to process and understand information, and to respond ...
The virtues of conformity go beyond simply communicating with other humans and being exposed to disparate viewpoints. A certain amount of conformity in the community can provide a great stabilizing force in the life of the individual. Community identity can be as vital as individual identity. Identifying with a certain subgroup in a community, be it based on interests, background, or belief system, creates a support network for when the individual’s self-reliance fails. An individual interested drama, for example, can draw a great deal of pleasure, companionship, and artistic growth from joining a theater group filled with like-minded individuals. A scientist can reach new heights of intellectual discovery when working in a group of great medical minds. And a racial or religious minority group can draw mental strength by sharing past experiences and providing support for future hardships. Individuality should be cherished. But so, too, should community. By rejecting all conformity in the name of an exalted self-reliance, Emerson is only hurting himself.
Works Cited
Saussure, Ferdinand de. “Course in General Linguistics.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and
Criticism. Ed. Vincent Leitch. 961.
