Wing Belmont: Tales of an Idiot.
Every new school year, I test my new English teacher by writing a completely fucked up essay and seeing how they react to it. I figure I can sacrifice one grade for the sake of getting some very vital information on my teacher's sense of humor and how strict they are. Today, I enlighten you with this year's essay.
Prompt: In George Orwell's 'Shooting an Elephant' we know the outcome from the title. Thus, the story involves detailing his position, his sense of self, in the unfolding of events. Have you similarly been pressured to do something which you now reflect on with regret or at least a new maturity?
The essay “Shooting an Elephant” follows a young George Orwell as he details his thoughts and trials while acting as an Indian imperial police officer in the country of Burma from the years 1922 to 1927. Orwell opens the essay by complaining about his treatment by the indigent people, then moving into the problems created by imperialism and his criticisms for the British Empire as well, even going so far as to say that he “was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British” (66). After these brief glimpses into his stances on imperialism and his position as an officer, he begins to tells a story about a particularly eventful day where an elephant, belonging to a Burmese man, had broken free from its restraints and was rampaging around the village in which he was in charge of policing. Eventually, he shot and killed the elephant, not because he believed it was the right thing to do, but because a crowd of Burmese citizens had gathered in anticipation of the elephant being shot and he was more concerned about the ridicule he would face in the event of backing down than he was of keeping the elephant alive.
Whether by direct influence or indirectly through assumed consequences, peer pressure can often change how a person acts in any given situation. While not quite the same context as above, I've had my share of experiences with peer pressure as well. I've always found that I fall not to your standard form of peer pressure, but more often a sort of reverse psychology in which I act in a rebellious and oftentimes stupid manner.
For instance, it was New Year's Eve of 2006 and my family and friends were in preparation to strike a toast as the clock struck midnight. With the cork popped and the wine poured, we toasted in the New Year, everyone else taking a sip and myself chugging the entire glass in my usual fashion. For the sake of a joke, I decided to pour myself another glass and drink it immediately after the first, all the while pretending to slur my words and generally act like a drunk. As my mother watched this, she told me not to drink too much or I'd make myself sick, at which point, I rebelliously replied by taking her glass and chugging it down as well, much to the amusement of our guests. Seeing said amusement, I just couldn't stop there, now could I? Two more glasses later, my mother was finally upset with my antics and told me not to dare pour another glass of wine. So, being the slightly drunk smart*** that I was at the time, I decide to listen to her and not pour another glass of wine, but simply drink from the bottle instead.
The consequences of this action of mine were numerous and sometimes quite severe, ranging from losing eighty dollars in Euchre bets because I couldn't keep track of what trump was, to having my girlfriend not talk to me for about a week because I had jokingly told her that I had just left a strip club when she called me later that night. Because, you know, it seemed funny at the time. And to think, I could have spent that money on buying the text book for this class that I've yet to acquire.
While long-winded and rather whimsically written, the point I had intended to make with the above story is that, while not a direct instance of peer pressure, there are many different ways in which people can be influenced to act in a manner out of character, some with good intention, some with bad intention, and some with no intention at all.
Group Polarization is defined as a “group-produced enhancement of members' preexisting tendencies; a strengthening of the members' average tendency, not a split within the group” by the seventh edition of McGraw Hill's Social Psychology textbook (sec. Glossary). Spoken in less precise terms, it's the tendency to become more sure of or act on a decision when surrounded by people who agree with that decision, where you otherwise would be unsure or indecisive about it. This form of peer pressure isn't direct at all, but is self-imposed when one is able to derive confidence in a decision based simply upon the number of people that agree with them in the near vicinity. An example of this that's frequently cited in history is the story of Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and proponent of the heliocentric theory of the universe. He was brought up on charges of heresy by the Inquisition, not because it was wrong, but because it went against the popular thinking of the time, along with the line of thought supported by the Catholic Church at the time. What was defined as correct at that time wasn't decided on by any empirical evidence, buy simply by what was the most commonly believed perspective, with that perspective being defended vigorously until it able to be proven wrong on a large enough scale to sway common opinion. Prior to his death, he was quoted as saying “It is surely harmful to souls to make it a heresy to believe what is proved “ (about.com), a quote which is particularly condemning of the notion of Group Polarization in the case of the geocentric vs. heliocentric theories of the universe.
Peer pressure is an inevitable consequence of human interaction, and is something which shouldn't be denied, as is popular for people to claim themselves as original; unique; etc. Instead, people should seek not to eliminate it from their lives, but to control it in a manner in which they see as beneficial, by surrounding themselves not with people they fit in with the easiest, but by people from all different walks of life so they can be challenged in their beliefs and grow spiritually. A belief that goes unchallenged is an utterly useless belief, and while such pressures can and likely will lead those astray at times, the knowledge gained from such experiences will strengthen the beliefs worth keeping and offer clarity to why, as opposed to just succumbing to another form of peer pressure in the form of Group Polarization.
Wow, for how fucked up that was to begin with, I actually somewhat pulled a point to that essay out of my ass. Go me.
Prompt: In George Orwell's 'Shooting an Elephant' we know the outcome from the title. Thus, the story involves detailing his position, his sense of self, in the unfolding of events. Have you similarly been pressured to do something which you now reflect on with regret or at least a new maturity?
The essay “Shooting an Elephant” follows a young George Orwell as he details his thoughts and trials while acting as an Indian imperial police officer in the country of Burma from the years 1922 to 1927. Orwell opens the essay by complaining about his treatment by the indigent people, then moving into the problems created by imperialism and his criticisms for the British Empire as well, even going so far as to say that he “was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British” (66). After these brief glimpses into his stances on imperialism and his position as an officer, he begins to tells a story about a particularly eventful day where an elephant, belonging to a Burmese man, had broken free from its restraints and was rampaging around the village in which he was in charge of policing. Eventually, he shot and killed the elephant, not because he believed it was the right thing to do, but because a crowd of Burmese citizens had gathered in anticipation of the elephant being shot and he was more concerned about the ridicule he would face in the event of backing down than he was of keeping the elephant alive.
Whether by direct influence or indirectly through assumed consequences, peer pressure can often change how a person acts in any given situation. While not quite the same context as above, I've had my share of experiences with peer pressure as well. I've always found that I fall not to your standard form of peer pressure, but more often a sort of reverse psychology in which I act in a rebellious and oftentimes stupid manner.
For instance, it was New Year's Eve of 2006 and my family and friends were in preparation to strike a toast as the clock struck midnight. With the cork popped and the wine poured, we toasted in the New Year, everyone else taking a sip and myself chugging the entire glass in my usual fashion. For the sake of a joke, I decided to pour myself another glass and drink it immediately after the first, all the while pretending to slur my words and generally act like a drunk. As my mother watched this, she told me not to drink too much or I'd make myself sick, at which point, I rebelliously replied by taking her glass and chugging it down as well, much to the amusement of our guests. Seeing said amusement, I just couldn't stop there, now could I? Two more glasses later, my mother was finally upset with my antics and told me not to dare pour another glass of wine. So, being the slightly drunk smart*** that I was at the time, I decide to listen to her and not pour another glass of wine, but simply drink from the bottle instead.
The consequences of this action of mine were numerous and sometimes quite severe, ranging from losing eighty dollars in Euchre bets because I couldn't keep track of what trump was, to having my girlfriend not talk to me for about a week because I had jokingly told her that I had just left a strip club when she called me later that night. Because, you know, it seemed funny at the time. And to think, I could have spent that money on buying the text book for this class that I've yet to acquire.
While long-winded and rather whimsically written, the point I had intended to make with the above story is that, while not a direct instance of peer pressure, there are many different ways in which people can be influenced to act in a manner out of character, some with good intention, some with bad intention, and some with no intention at all.
Group Polarization is defined as a “group-produced enhancement of members' preexisting tendencies; a strengthening of the members' average tendency, not a split within the group” by the seventh edition of McGraw Hill's Social Psychology textbook (sec. Glossary). Spoken in less precise terms, it's the tendency to become more sure of or act on a decision when surrounded by people who agree with that decision, where you otherwise would be unsure or indecisive about it. This form of peer pressure isn't direct at all, but is self-imposed when one is able to derive confidence in a decision based simply upon the number of people that agree with them in the near vicinity. An example of this that's frequently cited in history is the story of Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and proponent of the heliocentric theory of the universe. He was brought up on charges of heresy by the Inquisition, not because it was wrong, but because it went against the popular thinking of the time, along with the line of thought supported by the Catholic Church at the time. What was defined as correct at that time wasn't decided on by any empirical evidence, buy simply by what was the most commonly believed perspective, with that perspective being defended vigorously until it able to be proven wrong on a large enough scale to sway common opinion. Prior to his death, he was quoted as saying “It is surely harmful to souls to make it a heresy to believe what is proved “ (about.com), a quote which is particularly condemning of the notion of Group Polarization in the case of the geocentric vs. heliocentric theories of the universe.
Peer pressure is an inevitable consequence of human interaction, and is something which shouldn't be denied, as is popular for people to claim themselves as original; unique; etc. Instead, people should seek not to eliminate it from their lives, but to control it in a manner in which they see as beneficial, by surrounding themselves not with people they fit in with the easiest, but by people from all different walks of life so they can be challenged in their beliefs and grow spiritually. A belief that goes unchallenged is an utterly useless belief, and while such pressures can and likely will lead those astray at times, the knowledge gained from such experiences will strengthen the beliefs worth keeping and offer clarity to why, as opposed to just succumbing to another form of peer pressure in the form of Group Polarization.
Wow, for how fucked up that was to begin with, I actually somewhat pulled a point to that essay out of my ass. Go me.