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Factors that influence obedience and conformity
Joseph stalin and totalitarianism
Factors that influence obedience and conformity
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Conformity is a behavior in accordance with socially accepted conventions or standards. Throughout history conformity has been the root of oppression and the cause of revolution. The conformists obeys the authority while the nonconformists challenges them and establish new power. Despite that, nonconformity can also come at a price. We can see this happening in events such as the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution. The conformists suffers and the nonconformists becomes the new oppressor. Conformity and nonconformity is a double edge sword in which the oppressed becomes the oppressor.
In the French Revolution we can see how nonconformity can backfire. Maximilien Robespierre is a French politician that participated in the French Revolution. He opposed the French monarchy and
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Under Joseph Stalin’s rule of dictatorship, millions of Russians died due to starvation, execution, and exhuastion. The people of Russia conformed to Stalin’s “reign of terror” and were payed with consequences. The quote,” A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic” by Stalin demonstrate how minuscule the russian people are to him and they are merely tools.The irony lies in that the Revolution were started in order to overthrow the Bosheviks who were oppressing the people much like Stalin. This is another case in which conformity is a double edged sword and the oppressed becomes the oppressor.
To conclude, conformity is a double edged sword and will eventually lead to revolutions caused by nonconformists. Conformity is the order of society but sometimes that order must be broken to ensure a better society. The cycle of conformity and nonconformity will continue in order to achieve a better society and revolutions are deemed to be inevitable. Conformity and nonconformity both held large consequences and its up to the people to decide which side they want to be
Under a backdrop of systematic fear and terror, the Stalinist juggernaut flourished. Stalin’s purges, otherwise known as the “Great Terror”, grew from his obsession and desire for sole dictatorship, marking a period of extreme persecution and oppression in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s. “The purges did not merely remove potential enemies. They also raised up a new ruling elite which Stalin had reason to think he would find more dependable.” (Historian David Christian, 1994). While Stalin purged virtually all his potential enemies, he not only profited from removing his long-term opponents, but in doing so, also caused fear in future ones. This created a party that had virtually no opposition, a new ruling elite that would be unstoppable, and in turn negatively impacted a range of sections such as the Communist Party, the people of Russia and the progress in the Soviet community, as well as the military in late 1930 Soviet society.
Conformity also restricts the ideas of society to be heard, because everyone must follow the same ideology. One of the quotes from Beatty is “You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can’t have our minorities upset and stirred”, implying that people are better off conforming to the culture so that unhappiness does not happen (Bradbury 56). In Fahrenheit 451 conformity is the motto of the culture, society is distracted with certain simple things like TV and racing cars. Clarisse explains to Montag “People don’t talk about anything. they all say the same thing and nobody says anything different from anyone else”, the culture of this society couldn’t question certain things and most of their conversations lead to the same basic ideas.
The definition of conformity is the compliance with social standards and laws in a particular culture, environment, society and time. If this occurs the individual changes their attitudes, beliefs or actions to align more holistically with those in the surrounding groups and environment, as a result of real or perceived group pressure. This is ultimately a direct result of the power which a group has over the individual. There are two types of conformity, normative conformity, and informational conformity. The motivation behind normative conformity is the desire to be liked and accepted in society. This is most widely known as peer pressure. For example, a student begins smoking because their peers
The widespread suffering and loss under Stalin is undeniable. In spite of that, he had positive aspirations for what socialism could be. This potential and what he might have wanted for society can be seen in a few accounts outside of the terror he inflicted. Russian life is engulfed with struggle, dedicated labor and sacrifice. What helps some get through these trials can be the dreams of their future- to dissolve the past, and feel as if your current strains will not be wasted. The more positive outlooks on Stalin’s Russia tend to be propaganda, but there can be truth found in their hopes for improvement. Any sign of growth and positive development can be argued as a step in the right direction, and this is where people could place their
John F. Kennedy once said “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” What Kennedy meant is that being a conformist will make people not able to make choices. Conformists follow certain rules and do not have any freedom as human beings. An animal named Boxer from the novel called Animal Farm by George Orwell, is always working hard to make the farm better and inspired other animals to work hard as well. Martin Luther King Jr. is a civil right leader who fight for the freedom of African Americans. Many people think that conformity is the best thing to do, so they won’t get in trouble. But sometimes people think nonconformity is the best way to solve the problems that are happening like Luther did for his people and his country. The nature of conformity and nonconformity is that there will be short term effect, but there will long term benefits in the future.
Conformity seems to be the new silent killer. More and more people are choosing to conform rather than be themselves. Conformity is spread across the world and in our generation it’s starting to spread like a wildfire in dead grass. In the article “The Sociology of Leopard Man” by Logan Fey, Logan argues that conformity is becoming one of the world’s most dangerous psychological disorders. I will share my position and provide my own experience in terms of how I classify non-conformist and conformists.
In every society, there is conformity and nonconformity, although we may not notice it. Conformity is when someone is doing the same thing as others because they do not want to be the only one doing differently. Example, if there was a whole class raising their hands would you want to be the only one with your hand down, no so you would raise it with the rest of the class to not look like you don't know anything. This is called social pressures it when a large group is doing something and you're the only one not then you want to be doing whatever that large group is doing.
...ching to the beat of one drum, each member must separately contribute the overall sound and quality of the band. This relationship is also true between conformity and nonconformity. There is a time when an individual must conform to society and its accepted norms, but there is also a time when members of a society must reject the social norms of that day and march to their own drummer. These philosophical notions must exist in unison, for an unbalanced society is a suffering society. From technological advancements of the day, individuals can see that nonconformity is a necessary element for growth of a society, and through events such as the French Revolution, which resulted from the Enlightenment Period and the conformity to the Enlightenment ideals, individuals can see that conformity while it may be necessary can also act as a poison to organized government.
Conformity is defined as a change in behavior or belief to accord with others. (Meyers 170) What other people do and say can gradually influence others to deviate from ones beliefs and conform to others. One of the most famous documented studies to better illustrate this was a procedure performed by social psychologist, Solomon Asch.
Though conformity is a humane feeling, many examples of conformity going wrong can be found throughout history. For example, multiple Germans conformed to follow Nazism and prosecuted millions of innocent Jews. Southern whites conformed to segregate thousands of African-Americans. By looking at multiple sources of literature, one can see conformity becomes unacceptable when innocent people are hurt and/or killed and affects the way one thinks or acts.
Conformity involves the changing of one’s attitudes, opinions, or behaviours to match those of the ‘norms’. The “norms”, established by society, are what we should or ought to be thinking, feeling, or doing if we wish to be accepted into a group. This desire to be accepted and belong to a group is an undeniable human need.
“A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is statistic”. This quote from Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Union of Soviet Republics (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 captures the values and morals of Russia under his rule. Stalin utilised the concept of terror and repression carefully to ensure that the people did as they were told. Death was a common fate, with an estimated 20, 000, 000 people dying from purges or man-made famine. The lives of Russian citizens were greatly impacted, as culture and education were altered to support Stalin’s views. While the processes were inhumane, Stalin successfully utilised the concept of terror and repression, stopping all opposition and activities perceived as threats to the regime.
Conformity includes changing one’s behavior to fit in with what the people around them are doing. This is because if the majority is picking one answer, you will start to believe that is the correct answer even if there is no correct answer. Pressures from the people around you can allow you to make choice or actions to conform to your surroundings, even when you know it was wrong. There are three types of conformity: compliance, identification and internalization. Compliance conformity is acting from social pressure while internally disagreeing. This is usually rooted from wanting to fit in and believing there is a right answer. Identification conformity is adopting behavior that puts us in a relationship with someone we are trying to identify
This is the result of a population’s desire to be as ubiquitous as the majority, however the chance of conformity does increases with population Asch (1951). People are more likely to obey set rules when an authoritative figure is present, for example, a person may speed when the road is open, but if that person saw a cop he/she would follow the rules and go the speed limit, knowing that speeding can result in getting pulled over and cause the person to obtain a ticket. Conformity like peer pressure, can cause people to disregard their own morals and instead follow the preferences of others and conform to their standards, regardless of their own . A study done with conformity showed that if only one person fails to conform, the rate of conformity drops by 25% Asch (1956). So just one person following the rules can relieve pressure of other people who give in. In some cultures, conformity is an important part of society, for example, a school that requires uniforms and mandatory attendance. In a school like CCA where independence is cultivated, the rates of conformity will be lower. At CCA where rules are normally not broken, students will stay on campus to conform with their peers instead of breaking the conformity and leaving campus, however, when the majority of people leave school and go off campus for lunch, the conformity is increased because people feel more obligated to go with the
If we conform every student will be the exact same and our learning styles would be the same which they are not. We would be a bunch of zombies, and we wouldn’t maximize our learning opportunities, We would be unproductive. Being a nonconformist could be world changing, and there is proof of this in history. Think of Rosa Parks’s decision to not move seats on that bus in 1955; that brave act helped to surge the civil rights movement, her refusal to conform led to a change in racial equality. Wrapping this up, I believe that conformity is nonproductive, and being a nonconformist is