The Odd One Out:
An Essay on a Quote from Margaret Mead
Like a flickering flame in our souls, everyone on this earth is the subject of their very own judgmental ways. It is a piece of one that they cannot contain; it is printed in their minds. Jealousy, judgement, covetousness: all are natural ways of people that will always make an impact on their lives. Margaret Mead once said, “"For many Americans, the concept of success is a source of confusion. As a people, we Americans greatly prize success. We are taught to celebrate and admire the one who gets the highest grades, the one voted most attractive or most likely to succeed. But while we often rejoice in the success of people far removed from ourselves-people who work in another profession,
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live in another community, or are endowed with a talent that we do not especially want for ourselves-we tend to regard the success of people close at hand, within our own small group, as a threat." As a whole, we covet our neighbors, and shun those around us, all whilst admiring those far away who seem to have it all. Margaret Mead said something very agreeable to, in the way that we are started at a young age, we extol those who find success distant from our lives, and we are angered by the prosperity of those we recognize. To begin, everyone is taught at a very young age the concept of admiration and the prestige of success.
It truly all begins in the homes of families. Small children at a young age are taught good and bad, right and wrong. They are punished for doing something unacceptable, yet enshrined for doing something favorable. As these children grow up they head off to school. Children are singled out for their achievements, and rewarded for their accomplishments. In many cases, they even receive special attention. Children who are astute are honored in the honor roll for their grades, while those who are agile are congratulated for their ability to compete in athletics. This idea is stamped into the minds of the young, and can be the very source to the rise or fall of their souls. The very fire of jealousy parks in their minds, and the judgement of others instantly goes both ways. Those who are successful judge those below them whilst those below them, judge those who are better than them. Without a doubt it can be concluded that Margaret Mead’s quote reflects the concept and source of human interaction and …show more content…
envy. In addition, it is inherently clear the way, as a human race, we extol those who have found major success but are far away.
Celebrities are the most coveted of all humans on this earth. Admiration for celebrities goes profoundly deep. We respect people like Bill Gates, and envy his excessive amount of wealth. We recognize the success of those who have succeeded in ways that we have never even pondered. Everyone loves them; they cherish the pen marks they make on an object and give humongous sums of money just to shake their hand. We truly admire them even though they have never done anything to aid ourselves. Overall, Margaret Mead hit the nail right on the head with her
statement. Finally, while we find it so effortless to applaud those who find success far away; we see it as a threat when someone within our social vicinity achieves anything that trumps the success of our own. At a very young age we malice those who exceed our progress. And throughout adulthood the very same is so. One can be so angered by the thought of someone they know achieving praise. Perhaps it is because we believe that since we are in the same boat so to speak, that we should be just as successful and decorated. The real question we ask ourselves is, “why can’t that be me?” The success of others cuts deep within our comfort and mocks our very existence. If one were to walk into a high school and ask every student what they thought about the starting quarterback of the football team more than half of the students would leave an atrocious remark. And one can almost guarantee that Mitt Romney is envious of the success of our former president Barrack Obama. From the very top, to the very bottom of social classes, every single American citizen finds it so painless adore those who don’t know their name, yet the very opposite is so for those around them who have found success. Basically, humans are not programmed to establish fairness in life, only jealousy, and Margaret Mead understands that. In the end, Margaret Mead describes within her quote the genuine feelings of the populace in the United States. We are taught to be the way we are at a very young age. We admire those who find success in completely different ways from ourselves, who are far and away from our reach. And yet we find it so extremely effortless to deny the success of those within our lives. One can make an educated guess and understand that as a human race we are a jealous and envious population who will never change. Our brains are morphed into the base of society by society itself. Margaret Mead very well understood the way of the world. Never underestimate the conformity of the human mind, because as a whole, we are defined only by ourselves.
Psychologist, Carol S. Dweck in her well researched essay, “Brainology” analyzes how praise impacts mindset and how a growth mindset leads to greater success. She supports this claim by comparing the two different mindsets and how praise can affect them. She then proceeds to show praise leads to a fixed mindset harming a person by changing their views on effort. Finally, she argues that praise changes how and what people value, which can
A celebrity is not a person known for his/her talent or achievement, but an individual recognized for his/her reputation created by the media. The phase of stardom is slippery, and media may choose to represent celebrities varying from exaggerated admiration to mockery. The three texts chosen, movie "Sunset Boulevard", feature article "Over the Hilton" and television show "Celebrity Uncensored Six" are texts presenting different perception of celebrities than their usual images - either corrupted by the encircling media, overloads oneself with self-indulgence, or just mocks celebrity in a broad spectrum. Such media items empower and impresses the audience by perceiving celebrities as people who pay the price of privacy to gain well knowness, signifying the vanity of stardom from the commonly accepted images.
Part of that is because some people’s perspectives of celebrities allow them think as if they’re on a pedestal and are more important than the average human. When people vision these celebrities as these quintessential people it enable’s their own thoughts and opinions on the celebrity. It’s like brainwashing, these celebrities only show the media what they want, which allows them to put up a whole façade and mask who they truly are. During the O.J Simpson trial it opened more people’s minds to visualize the concept that celebrities have the ability to be just as deranged as the average person, and that we are all equal, but the only difference that’s separates us is the fact that their job is in the lime
Margaret Mead once said that "For many Americans, the concept of success is a source of confusion. As a people, we Americans greatly prize success. We are taught to celebrate and admire the one who gets the highest grades, the one voted most attractive or most likely to succeed. But while we often rejoice in the success of people far removed from ourselves-people who work in another profession, live in another community, or are endowed with a talent that we do not especially want for ourselves-we tend to regard the success of people close at hand, within our own small group, as a threat." Personally i believe that this is not true for many reasons. It makes the world run smoother although I wont be talking about that personally it really does.
People should take pride in what they have accomplished. Achilles, the hero of the Iliad, was greatly revered by the ancient Greeks for his ability as a great warrior. He had great pride in his accomplishments and viewed himself superior to others, and the people praised him for it. Many people in today’s society would label him as arrogant, but in fact he should be praised for having pride for what he has done because he has superior ability. Likewise, in the Old English epic poem Beowulf, Beowulf defeats enemies that other man had never succeeded at doing. He would boast of what he had done to others, but unlike most people who boast, Beowulf had done what others had never done before. In recent days, praises people greatly for their accomplishments because they are impaired in some way. For example, society praises Stephen Hawking, who takes pride in his work in theoretical physics, much greater than Jason Lezak, who has pride in winning the 4x100 relay at t...
Each person feels rivalry or competition to other humans, for the majority of their lifetime. This rivalry greatly affects our ability to understand others, and this eventually results in war, discrimination, and enmity. Children are definitely culprits for acting inhumane to each other with teasing, competition, and often hurtful remarks. Although this is the way children often act, it is in the teenage years realization, along with careful thought and consideration, brings each individual to understand wider prospects of human nature; that people coldly drive ahead for themselves alone. Man’s inhumanity1 to man is a way for people to protect themselves from having pain inflicted on them by fellow humans, and achieving their goals and desires free from interference of others.
We are prisoners to our perception. It is a common saying that things are not always as they seem .This philosophy is abundantly true when it comes to the subject of fame, celebrity, furtune and impact. The way we see things is responsible for the set up of our individual ideologies.”Evidence “by Kathryn Schultz refers to ideology as a “conceptual framework” (Schultz, page 373).We see fame as the greatest achievement that one could accomplish in their lifetime. We idolize and fantasize how the wealthy are free of the burdens of life and that they are faced with little to no misfortunes. As pointed out several times throughout this writing, this is a counterfactual way of looking at fame. Schulz’s essay further states that “to exist, to deal with reality, we need a conceptual framework; theories that tell us which questions to ask and which to not, where to look and where not to bother.”(Schulz, page 373).This quote relates to the subject matter because I also feel that individuals tend to overlook the cons of fame and focus too much of the glitz and glamour associated with fame.Basically,some people see what they want to see and ignore what they don't want to accept and
celebrity may be found in the words of one of America’s Founding Fathers, John Adams, who wrote, ‘‘The rewards . . . in this life are steem and admiration of others—the punishments are neglect and contempt. The desire of the esteem of others is as real a want of nature as hunger—and the neglect and contempt of the world as severe as a pain.” (Price, 463). The author suggests that fame is not at all w...
As long as civilized societies have existed, hypocrisy and discrimination have been an unassailable piece of each of them. A punishment for an offense has always been determined by the severity of the action, which inherently depends on the culture of the people. However, the presence of some level of judgement of others has remained inevitable. Many would like to ask the question “Why does this feeling of entitlement to pass judgement exist when everything is subjective to each person’s own morals?” One might ponder that very enigmatic phenomenon. However, this essay will focus on why and how a person should overcome the inevitable mistakes they will make in their lifetime. The word itself seems much too cliche, but as these literary
The star text of a celebrity can help to decipher their image and transitions they may undergo. In order to better understand these transitions, one must know the definition of a star text. A star text is the sum of everything we affiliate with celebrities, which includes their body of work, promotion, publicity, and audience participation (Jackson, 08/09/16). One must note that “celebrity doesn 't happen because someone has extraordinary qualities – it is discursively constructed by the way in which the person is publicised and meanings about them circulate” (O 'Shaughnessy and Stadler 424). Destiny Hope Cyrus, “an American singer and actress, became a sensation in the television series
We are taught to celebrate for those that have achieved their goals; whether it be sports, academics, or everyday life. We tend to over exaggerate and celebrate many things with people that are close to us, but not with strangers that we do not converse with. Many state that it is a common thing to celebrate for the people you know and frown upon the accomplishments of the people that you do not converse with. For example, in a high school setting you have pep rally 's to celebrate your team 's win, but when you teams loses schools do not think twice about celebrating for the other teams win. Instead, people go on their lives acting like the other team did not accomplish anything because it was simply a threat they won against the hometown team. Margaret Mead expresses her feelings towards these acts and the way she expresses her feelings I
George Packer argues how “celebrities loom larger on the social horizon than they do in more equitable times, overshadowing the rest of us” individuals.
Celebrity has become synonymous with cynosure. And no cynosure doesn’t mean an attention seeking hotshot who is willing to do anything for fame. It is a person that becomes the centre of our admiration and attention due to their brilliance. Is it just me or the thesaurus has got it wrong. Our modern day obsession with celebrities raises the question between respect for sheer brilliance and talent vs. a shallow fascination that is a sign of our degenerating society. Why do these particular people get so much attention? They can either be entertaining or culturally significant.Within the 21st century context, has talent been replaced with controversy, image obsession and mindless presence? (PAUSE)
Celebrities are not just normal people they are rich and famous and always in the public eye. People know them but do they know them a little too much is the question. They are bombarded by the paparazzi whenever they take a step. They have a privacy issue at their expense; they can not lead normal lives. Celebrities’ indulge in drugs, have privacy issues, and mess up healthy relationships.
The way we view ourselves as individuals can shape how we handle certain situations in our lives. “For instance, individuals tend to globally overvalue their positive traits, considering themselves more attractive than the average person (Horton, 2003), and as more attractive than others see them”. (Epley & Whitchurch, 2008)” (Re & Rule, 2016). Meaning most individuals tend to think highly of themselves and focus on their definite “positive traits” more than anything else. By focusing on these traits it is easier for one to only see the characteristics that tend to make them look better to themselves. A person’s outlook on how they perceive themselves can either ignite positive or negative feelings, and depending on the situation and experiences