preview

Conformity, By John F. Kennedy

Decent Essays

John F. Kennedy once wrote, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” Each individual above was stripped of his identity and freedom and was forced to conform to the group as a whole. Individuals are most likely to follow the flock, rather than to form their own thought on an issue; most likely due to pressure and fear. Ultimately, conformity takes away individual characteristics and replaces it with group traits. This can be seen in history and everyday life including The Nazi Political party (as represented above), modern day schooling, and in national governments. In the mid 30’s Germany was in a perpetual state of economic decline. The First World War had decimated all economic growth, increased inflation, and made unemployment an all-time high. From the suffering of …show more content…

Like the picture, people are lined up in row upon row and are given a certain task to complete. Each student must follow a strict set of rules designed by a few individuals with power. Comparably, the individuals in the photo also had to follow the regulations of their superior. Schools tend to foster conformity and create outliers of those who decide to be their own person. A perfect hypothetical example would be the student Bob. Bob tends to draw in class and doesn’t quite learn the same way as other students. When asked questions, because he was so busy drawing, Bob usually failed to answer the question with the correct response. When Bob did not answer after X amount of times, the teacher resulted in corporal punishment. This labeled him as an outcast and caused the other student to shun him and prevent him from participating in group activities. The picture illustrates the same effect and shows that only the people who obeyed were not shunned but rather accepted into a larger group. This, in both situations, has resulted in the loss of identity and personal characteristics that make people

Get Access