John Stuart Mill states that humans have a tendency to conform to the group’s actions. He also claims that there are nonconformists who ultimately inspire regular people to express themselves. While Mill argues that nonconformity leads to innovation, John Didion argues that nonconformity leads to personal worthlessness. In Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion constantly demonstrates how clueless everyone she interacts with is. At one point, she cites a conversation between an woman and a city girl. The woman said “‘you get one that says ‘1111’ in one corner and ‘1111’ in another, you take it down to Dallas, Texas, they’ll give you $15 for it.’ ‘Who will?’ the city girl asks. ‘I don’t know.’” No one in their right mind brings up a topic that they don’t know about; however, the girl who brought up the conversation had no idea what she was talking about, demonstrating that the conversation between the two was both pointless and a waste of time. Essentially, this is how Didion perceives most interactions between the hippy nonconformists. This is also shown when Didion is with Barbra. Didion states that “whenever I hear about the woman’s trip, which is often, I think a lot about... how it is possible for people to be the unconscious instruments of …show more content…
As shown by Didion, when people attempt to express themselves, their actions have no purpose, which wastes not only their own time, but other’s time as well. Didion also shows that in some cases, people aren’t able to express themselves at all because their true thoughts never come out. The only things that are expressed are thoughts that the person never believed in in the first place. This goes to show that Didion disagrees completely with Mill; nonconformity doesn’t lead to innovation, but leads to personal
Emerson believed that one can’t be themselves if they did conform, as conforming was almost like copying another person’s image in Emerson’s eyes. In this essay, he states that it’s important to believe in your own ideas in order to be a genius. “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,- that is genius” (Emerson, 19) Nonconformity continues to be a very common theme, as Emerson relates nonconformity to infants. “Infancy conforms to nobody: all conform to it, so that the babe commonly makes four or five out of the adults who prattle and play to it” (Emerson,
Through her collection of essays, Slouching Toward Bethlehem, Joan Didion expressed her unique perspective of American culture during the 1960’s. Her unique point of view is characterized by the fact that she is a woman who is in her mid-thirties. Her background creates a lack of a connection between her and the new generation. Didion depicts this influential time in American history as someone who looks down upon the new generation’s culture, actions, morals, and ways of life. In Didion’s most famous work, Slouching Toward Bethlehem, she expressed her experiences during her duration in California.
Conformity, in relation to societal norms, happens to be something many people strive to deviate from, yet only few are able to achieve. One reason for this could be because the media nowadays is being blamed for manipulating people to subconsciously adhere to certain views. The media is being used to evoke certain thoughts, whether it be about purchasing something being advertised in a commercial, or even in news reports to give the viewers a certain impression on a topic. Likewise, there are people who are successful in resisting this level of conformity. In real life, Lynn Coady, author of Genius or Madness? would exemplify such behaviour, based on what ideas are presented in the essay.
1. Do you agree with Didion’s claim that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others? Yes I agree with Didion’s claim that “self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others.” I believe if we’re only seeking approval of others then we aren’t actually respecting ourselves.
As Ralph Emerson said, “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles” (last sentence of book). Remaining true to himself, McCandless was able to achieve what he considered to be meaningful in life. From the start of his journey, it is seen that being true to oneself is challenging, as others are living in a world that demands them to alter their identity. However, one must stay true and authentic and understand the desires and needs, in order to attain an adequate living, just like Chris McCandless.
Into the Wild: Transcendentalism at it’s Finest “If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again I want you to know you’re a great man (Chapter 14).” This was a quote from a letter that Chris McCandless wrote to an acquaintance named Wayne Westerberg. It was a week or so before Chris McCandless spent many months in the Alaskan wilderness alone, and eventually arrived to his death.
Which is saying that we should not copy others and think for ourselves because if we copy others we should just commit suicide. A clear example of this is from the Twilight zone episode named Number 12 Looks Just Like You. This example is about Marilyn Cuberle that once she turns 19 she has to be conformed into society by looking like the rest but she refuses to be one of them because of how her dad had the transformation and afterwards regret and
You read and I look around, but there isn’t anybody!” (Bradbury 73). This quote from Mildred is so painfully ironic, considering she, as stated before, spends most of her time watching T.V., which is nothing but fake people in fake situations. This quote also defines Mildred’s close-mindedness and how content she is without change or really any ‘life’ in her life.
I think I will divert the train to the right killing one person because one person is less important than five. Sometimes it is important to do what is right than what is morally good to do. The utilitarianism is a moral theory that gives happiness to the number of people in the society and it has been considered greatness, an action is morally appropriate if its outcomes lead to happiness and wrong if it results in sadness. I will begin by describing what Mill might do in the Trolley situation. Next, I will contrast what Kant might do in this situation and lastly, I will be also going to give my opinion on this Trolley situation.
John Stuart Mill wrote that we cannot call God good for he is a perfect being and the word ‘good’ is a word that describes the highest form of human morality. I believe this statement to be true in a sense. Good is a term that has a relative meaning when describing things. Good is from a perspective of the individual. In this paper I will be arguing that the word ‘good’ in the phrase “God is good” is in relation to the opinion of the person describing God, and that it cannot be known to our reality if God is objectively good.
Only those who are unaffected by the norms of society and express their individuality can live in true
I chose to review the fifth chapter of “New Ideas From Dead Economists” titled The Stormy Mind of John Stuart Mill. John Stuart Mill was born in 1806 in London to two strict parents who began to educate their son at a very young age. Mill’s father was James Mill, a famous historian and economist, who began to teach his son Greek at the age of three. The book reports that “by eight, the boy had read Plato, Xenophon, and Diogenes” and by twelve “Mill exhausted well-stocked libraries, reading Aristotle and Aristophanes and mastering calculus and geometry” (Buchholz 93). The vast amount of knowledge that Mill gained at a young age no doubt assisted him in becoming such a well-recognized philosopher and economist.
The death penalty is a punishment of execution, given to someone legally convicted of a capital crime. The death penalty laws were established in the 18th century B.C when king Hammaurabi of Babylon instituted the law for 25 different crimes. In Jewish history the death penalty could only be given after trail by the Sanhedrin, which was composed of twenty-three judges. There were four different ways the death penalty was imposed on an individual, these were burning, stoning, strangling and slaying (Talmud). In today’s society most countries have abolished the death penalty due to various reasons such as unfair justice, but others still have it in place, for example some states in The United States of America.
My topic originated from reading Thomas Carlyle and John Stuart Mill 's debate in December 1849-January 1850. Both writers published anonymously in Fraser ' Magazine, with Carlyle writing a violent critique, ‘Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question’, and Mill sending in an outraged response simply entitled ‘The Negro Question’ that appeared in the following issue. Counteracting Carlyle 's very racist vision of the repartition of work among Black and White Jamaicans with arguments undermining that conception , Mill retorted But I again renounce all advantage from facts: were the whites born ever so superior in intelligence to the blacks, and competent by nature to instruct and advise them, it would not be the less monstrous to assert that
John Stuart Mill, at the very beginning of chapter 2 entitled “what is utilitarianism”. starts off by explaining to the readers what utility is, Utility is defined as pleasure itself, and the absence of pain. This leads us to another name for utility which is the greatest happiness principle. Mill claims that “actions are right in proportions as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” “By Happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain, by happiness, pain and the privation of pleasure”.