If someone had told me only six months ago that I’d be writing this post, I would have scoffed in your face. One of my modules in my degree was core & critical psychology; all the post-modern and philosophical crap that questions the entire way we think, feel, act and live. I hated it. I like science and facts and while I have always known culture helps to shape us, it’s recently started creeping up on me just how much.
We are all willing slaves to society.
That’s a pretty bold statement, huh? I, as much as anyone, like to think I’m my own person and have free will but it’s not really true. Everything we think and do is within cultural lines that have been laid out for us to obey. The fact that different cultures have different values, and that those who go against these values are shunned and mocked, shows that we are all constrained, at least a little, by the opinions of the masses.
It’s funny because what actually made me come to write this post isn’t anything deep, it was the huge influx of keratin based hair products that has taken the hair care and blogging industry by storm. Before keratin, argan oil was the must have hair care ingredient, and before that it was morrocan oil. Same with how bee and snake venom would never have been used in beauty products however long ago, but is now a common and popular ingredient for skin care. Marketers are very clever. I’m sure the best of them could convince the world that dog shit is the next vital beauty ingredient if they wanted to, and in five years time we’d all be blogging about how miraculous it is for youthful looking skin.
There’s so much research I could go into behind things like how being in a group can cause you to lose your identity, how an authority figure giving orders can turn you into a killer, how you’ll give an answer you know is wrong if everyone else gives it first. But I won’t because, interesting as it all is it doesn’t really add anything to the point I am going to leave you with. Which is this: it’s easy to go through life without questioning the things you think and do. You might even think that there is nothing wrong with our society, but that is how people have always felt about the way they live, it’s the people who have questioned societies rules that has meant homosexuality is no longer a crime, that women can now work and it not be questioned, that children go to school rather than work in factories.
I’m not saying go around burning your bras and protesting about equality, I’m saying maybe before you do something, question your motives. Are you doing something because you want to, or because it’s normal to?
Oh also, before anyone takes offense. I do believe that we are unique and individual, but I also don’t think we would be who we are without culture shaping us. Even more so now that we have instant access to every corner of the world by the fast growing technology. Take this as an example. The human race has not evolved to wear clothes, yet if I were to go out completely naked I would either be arrested, or taken in for psychological tests purely because I would be going against what society dictates is normal.
What do you think?
