Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Social Norms vs The Truth


Believe it or not, all of us are brain washed by social norms everyday. Every single thought, gesture, language, manner and perceptions, all of these are being regulated by social norms. So what is social norms? Who created it and why is it so powerful?

Social norms, of course is created by the society members, who use it to distinguish between majority and minority. It varies from community to community. I believe all human beings never intent to create such thing at the beginning, but don’t know why and how social norms slowly, progressively seeding in everyone’s mind and exerting its action, till now.

The truth, nobody can define it, because the definition that you may try to come up with might not be the truth. Everybody loves the truth, without any reason or purpose. Truth, changes with time. In the ancient days, people thought that God is the ultimate truth, thus by following the priests’ words, you would find Him and The Truth eventually. For example before the Renaissance, civilians were told that if they buy the Letter of Indulgence from the priest, the God would erase their sins. That’s obviously wrong even in the eyes of atheist. But in the modern days now, with the aid of sciences and logical thinking, The Truth has became vague and beyond our understanding. For example last time scientists thought that the sperm contained a small baby which will only grow in the womb of a lady. And now it is proven that’s no such ‘little, tiny baby’ hiding inside the head of sperm except genetic materials and nutrition. The theories proposed nowadays are really convincing, but would it change in the future when newer advanced technology is being invented?

As a modern civilian, we are always bounded by social norms and the truth. Besides, the relationship between social norms and the truth is quite fascinating. Firstly, social norms will tell you current truth, and the truth may explain the current social norms. Secondly, the truth can alter the social norms as well as the social norms can bend the truth. Wow, really need to kill more brain cells to comprehend these statements.

If you are asked to choose one side, social norms and the truth, which side do you want? If you choose social norms, your life will be ordinary and forgettable. The challenge that you have to face is to keep up with the trend, and that’s not easy. You need to have good observation, be an obedient follower, and able to change when necessary. The advantage would be acceptance by the majority, no harsh life. But if you choose the truth, let’s just say you are digging your own grave. The challenge is uncountable and unbearable. Do you still remember Galileo? What was his outcome just to prove that the earth travels around the sun? Yea, death sentence in the name of heaven. See, when social norms and the truth fight against each other, social norms will be the winner most of the time. Well, people are getting more civilized and they won’t kill you just because you say something different. But the mentality still persists. The good thing of choosing the truth, you will be remembered and your life is meaningful.

To tackle social norms, we say ‘dare to be different’, but seriously how many people willing to become the minority? Do we really like stereotyping? People, seek for the truth and stop living in ignorance.

“The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves, and you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it” -Tuesday with Morrie

1 thought:

chang yuan said...

never know you could come across with this type of topic, looks like you have gone through many things that made you a different person today. can't wait to meet you and chat along, my dear friend! but you did make me thinking again, choosing the truth or the social norms, which is one of the thing i have been thinking about since secondary school, ha!