Social pressure: the death of grace
14 11 10 - 04:16
Two women on why social pressure is devastating when it replaces common sense:
She thinks her peers found her âweirdâ. I suspect that they were jealous of her growing success at local festivals when they had her patronisingly tagged as the tall, thin, pale kid who was no good at sports.
One night, soon after sheâd sung the national anthem at a professional basketball game, she rang round her friends to see if anyone wanted to hang out with her at the local mall. âThat memory is one of those painful ones youâll never fully get over,â she says, emotionally. âAt that point Iâd been shunned from the group for whatever reason and I was still trying desperately to be included. That evening, I called them up and they each said no and Mom said, âYou know what? You want to go to the mall, letâs go together.â
And we ran into this entire group of girls who had told me they were busy that night. In situations like that my mum has known exactly the right time to run away. There are situations where you have to encourage someone to be tough and there are times when you should just run. So we got in the car and we drove to the mall thatâs an hour and a half away but is a better mall.â - The Daily Fale
It's one of life's hardest lessons: people are often most accepting of you when you're unthreatening, a failure or screwup. But when you're succeeding? They want what you want, and hate you for having it. Most of our species is too "mature" in the sense of being "responsible" and boring, but not mature enough in the sense of having control of their emotions.
And then there's what happens when socialization, and socialism, takes over a society:
n an outspoken interview published in the latest edition of the French celebrity magazine Paris Match, Dame Helen describes modern Britain as an âangryâ and âcruelâ society that no longer cherishes old-fashioned virtues.
...
Asked whether British values such as decency were being lost, the London-born actress said: âIâm under the impression that this notion is disappearing from our society where conflicts are made worse on cinema and on television, where people are nasty and cruel on the internet and where, in general terms, everybody seems to me to be very angry.â
...
I donât consider myself a political person but above all as a humanist, and I have the same positive attitude towards the future as my parents did. But the violence of the past can return, and I fear it.â - Also Daily FALE
Dame Helen -- who is half-Russian, thus ethnically confused and probably bigoted against the majority anyway -- considers herself a humanist and the past to be an evil, dark time. Yet maybe that evil, dark time held in check something even worse, and that's what is eating current Britain.
Has it occurred to her that during her lifetime, Britain has become more humanist and more socialized, which are ideas she seemingly supports? Well... probably. But she seems to be in denial. We'll take the Taylor Swift analysis, thanks.
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