Dogmas and other devils

We are brought up with the idea that we have to think like everybody else. And I'm not talking about having the same personality – that'll never happen. I'm talking about being brought up with the same system of values, with the same sense of right and wrong. We are all taught the same things: it is wrong to swear, it is wrong to brag, it is wrong to hit someone in the face. It is, however, morally right to be polite, to be friendly, to help other people.

And because we all have the same system of values, and we all have the same mentality, we are biased against anyone who actually defies those dogmas. Now at some extent, that's fine. Especially at this age, when this bias isn't formed completely. But my problem with this is that even though we are taught the same things, and we have all the same set of values, that doesn't mean that those are the right things and values.

What am I talking about, really? Well, a very good and somewhat meaningful example would be racism. Now in the society we live in, racism isn't that big a problem anymore. But let's think a little about the Great Depression. In that time, kids were brought up exactly with this idea: black people are bad and evil and we shouldn't talk to them because... well... because they're black. Some of you might have read Harper Lee's “To Kill a Mockingbird” (if you haven't, please do, it's a very good book) and probably know what I'm talking about. Basically, one of the values of the society was racism. It was quite common to be racist in that time, and if you weren't, you'd sure face a lot of hardship when trying to fit into the society.

So in other words, this is one of those things that everybody believed were true. And if you didn't, you'd be judged because of it. Yet disagreeing with the status quo was exactly what was needed in order to change things for the better. Only when someone really stands for his or her beliefs, even though those beliefs are in complete contradiction with what the whole society believes, can something great be accomplished.

No one who is someone ever thought like everybody else did. Nelson Mandela fought a system that was supported by the Dutch and British colonists. Martin Luther King fought a value that stood at the core of the American society. But let's not only talk about racism here. Let's talk broader.

Michael Jordan didn't make his high school's varsity basketball team when he was a sophomore because “he was too short”. He afterwards became a legend of basketball. Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper for “lacking imagination”. He afterwards became a legend of innovation. The Beatles were thought to have “no future in the music industry” by a record label. They afterwards became legends of the pop-rock industry.

Now what's the bottom line here? All these people thought differently. They were round pegs in square holes. They didn't accept the opinions of others – because the others may be wrong. They accomplished their goals by not accepting the common set of values that was imposed by the society.

So basically, questioning everything (as I said in the previous article I wrote) is good because it makes you think clearer – it makes you see whether the society is actually right. It makes you see whether you can make an actual change. And most of the times, you can.


Articol scris de:
Raluca-Ioana Vacaru (XI B)
Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/mbortolino

Posted in: Think different