Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Conformity as an enemy of self-esteem

Rate this topic


Recommended Posts

So, I'm now almost done reading 'social Metaphysics' by Nathaniel Branden and I thought I'd comment.

He described a phenomenon in which people, for various reasons, give up their independent judgement and make decisions based on other people's world of ideas. This is basically, as I understand it, a description of the psychology of a second hander and how it comes to be.

So once a person gives up (out of fear or a desire to 'belong') their own thinking they begin to become primarily or even exclusively concerned with the world of ideas of other men and they make their choices and decisions while taking other people's ideas as REALITY - as their epistemological frame of reference as Branden calls it.

He is describing a process which has nothing to do with altruism (the same results could be brought about by altruism, but the process he describes is not related to altruism).

What I do have to say though, is that I think in some cases the egg comes before the chicken - meaning that in some cases people accept the idea (during childhood) that their worth is to be measured by the degree of their acceptance by others and as a result they give up judgment. Kids are especially vulnerable to this idea because they are at a stage of learning, of having a whole world unknown to them and they look up to adults and the environment to teach them. So it is understandable why, if a kid is taught that to be good he must be 'like the other kids' that he could accept such an idea as true (until he grows up and accumulates enough knowledge to revisit this idea and decide if it is true or false).

Another example of this is how kids usually accept their parent's idea that masturbation is shameful - proper judgment about this involves huge scale integrations and so many kids simply accept what their parents teach them as right.

So I think in many cases kids accept the idea that they are good if they are 'normal', 'like the other kids' and as a result they suspend their judgment when it collides with others for the fear of "not being good".

I can think of several cases where a person does exercise independent judgement in the realm of ethics and yet they have this compulsion to be accepted, 'like the others' and they see it as a fundamental flaw of theirs if they are not such.

So it seems like there are some cases in which giving up thinking is secondary, not a primary.

End of thoughts on the topic. Note: you might need to read the essay to get what I'm talking about. I read it from 'The psychology of Self Esteem' by Nathaniel Branden (it is probably also available in other places).

Edited by ifatart
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 76
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I should add though that even though kids are vulnerable to ideas which involve big abstractions - the vulnerability does intensify the less self-reliant, thinking and confident a child is.

If a child learns to take on challenges and rely on his or her own thinking from a young age, then they are less likely to accept ideas from their parents or the environment by default even if they involve abstractions greater than their power to digest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...