A question for everyone: What's this invisible force we call society and why do we let it control us?

Question

In my very short life, all I read and hear about is how society did this and wants that. That has made me into a nonconformist. Heck, I can't read a mag or watch entertainment news because all I can hear is " Oh, for the 1st time in history..." or the effect of our ever changing pop culture or culture" or this group and this girl has caused such a phenomenon" which I really don't see. How it has controlled gender roles, actions, wars, and the very fact of being human. Is society a generalization of people's opinions, ideas, and wishes. How am I supposed to believe something I can't see? All I see is people ( have seen dead people though), so why do I have to try to listen and please "society"? Please, feel free to argue and disagree with me all you want.

Answer 1

I don't think anyone should have to please society. And actually society is more of the norms that a group has. I'm learning about this stuff in my Conflict Resolution and Team Dynamics class at my college it's really interesting. And from the reading I've done "norms" are pretty much standards that a group in this case Amercian people have decided are what is the right and wrong thing to do. Like its alright to have a 9 to 5 job, it's alright to eat raw fish(sushi), its even great to follow laws. Because the greater body of people agree those things are all acceptable by the American group of people by not really going against anyone that does these things.

However if you do break the law, or even express a not so common group belief like going green or not liking a certain celeb or even 'hating' a certain celeb you are going against the grain of society and most do not like that.

Oh and also, you can't really see these group decisions all the time because the are considered Groupthink decisions, which is pretty much based off what the majority of the group thinks and feels is most important even if a few minor people do not agree.

Answer 2

thats why i carry around a cantaloupe in my left pocket and a lemon wedge in my right pocket

Answer 3

Excerpt from "Why Socialism" by Albert Einstein

Man is, at one and the same time, a solitary being and a social being. As a solitary being, he attempts to protect his own existence and that of those who are closest to him, to satisfy his personal desires, and to develop his innate abilities. As a social being, he seeks to gain the recognition and affection of his fellow human beings, to share in their pleasures, to comfort them in their sorrows, and to improve their conditions of life. Only the existence of these varied, frequently conflicting, strivings accounts for the special character of a man, and their specific combination determines the extent to which an individual can achieve an inner equilibrium and can contribute to the well-being of society. It is quite possible that the relative strength of these two drives is, in the main, fixed by inheritance. But the personality that finally emerges is largely formed by the environment in which a man happens to find himself during his development, by the structure of the society in which he grows up, by the tradition of that society, and by its appraisal of particular types of behavior. The abstract concept "society" means to the individual human being the sum total of his direct and indirect relations to his contemporaries and to all the people of earlier generations. The individual is able to think, feel, strive, and work by himself; but he depends so much upon society—in his physical, intellectual, and emotional existence—that it is impossible to think of him, or to understand him, outside the framework of society. It is "society" which provides man with food, clothing, a home, the tools of work, language, the forms of thought, and most of the content of thought; his life is made possible through the labor and the accomplishments of the many millions past and present who are all hidden behind the small word “society.”

It is evident, therefore, that the dependence of the individual upon society is a fact of nature which cannot be abolished—just as in the case of ants and bees. However, while the whole life process of ants and bees is fixed down to the smallest detail by rigid, hereditary instincts, the social pattern and interrelationships of human beings are very variable and susceptible to change. Memory, the capacity to make new combinations, the gift of oral communication have made possible developments among human being which are not dictated by biological necessities. Such developments manifest themselves in traditions, institutions, and organizations; in literature; in scientific and engineering accomplishments; in works of art. This explains how it happens that, in a certain sense, man can influence his life through his own conduct, and that in this process conscious thinking and wanting can play a part.

Man acquires at birth, through heredity, a biological constitution which we must consider fixed and unalterable, including the natural urges which are characteristic of the human species. In addition, during his lifetime, he acquires a cultural constitution which he adopts from society through communication and through many other types of influences. It is this cultural constitution which, with the passage of time, is subject to change and which determines to a very large extent the relationship between the individual and society. Modern anthropology has taught us, through comparative investigation of so-called primitive cultures, that the social behavior of human beings may differ greatly, depending upon prevailing cultural patterns and the types of organization which predominate in society. It is on this that those who are striving to improve the lot of man may ground their hopes: human beings are not condemned, because of their biological constitution, to annihilate each other or to be at the mercy of a cruel, self-inflicted fate.

If we ask ourselves how the structure of society and the cultural attitude of man should be changed in order to make human life as satisfying as possible, we should constantly be conscious of the fact that there are certain conditions which we are unable to modify. As mentioned before, the biological nature of man is, for all practical purposes, not subject to change. Furthermore, technological and demographic developments of the last few centuries have created conditions which are here to stay. In relatively densely settled populations with the goods which are indispensable to their continued existence, an extreme division of labor and a highly-centralized productive apparatus are absolutely necessary. The time—which, looking back, seems so idyllic—is gone forever when individuals or relatively small groups could be completely self-sufficient. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that mankind constitutes even now a planetary community of production and consumption.

continued . . .