The GAMSAT Essay Series... Peer Pressure

Humans are a funny little species. Although herd animals by nature, with the easiest route for us being simply the same route as everyone else, the idealists among us actively encourage being different, standing out, and doing our own thing – i.e., being the ‘tall poppy’. Conversely, those of us who decide to do things differently – whether it be wearing loud clothing (or no clothing!), achieving highly in sports or academia, or being gay – are often and easily mocked or put down by our more ‘average’ peers. What could have possibly gone wrong in our evolution that would have caused such a discrepancy between the right and easy paths in our lives?

The people we grow up to be are the product of our society, reflective of the world around us. Therefore, it stands to reason that the sources of these conflicting inputs we receive are mostly from the people around us. They, in turn, have received these values from others who have come before them in much the same way. No man is an island. We cannot survive on our own; we would be lost. It may almost be beneficial that this huge ball of society rolls us around the great wilderness of space and time, guiding us along with it.

However, if this alone were the case, why would people go through the effort to be different in the first place? Why be gay when you can be straight? Why score well when just being average will do? I think it comes down to that little spark within us – our personality, which takes the values we receive from society, and processes them, changing them slightly, like an inter-generational game of Chinese Whispers. Much like it changes the values we receive from society, it gives us our own little glowing ball of guidance that is uniquely our own: a confidence in ourselves, and the values we come up with on our own.

Some of us have stronger personalities than others; they are able to take in the values society gives them and change them to a greater degree than most of us are able to do, sometimes to the extent that by the time they present them to the world, they appear fresh and new: think inspiring figures like Nelson Mandela’s ideal of racial equality in South Africa, Aung San Suu Kyi, the living symbol of freedom for Burma, and even visionaries in the creative fields like Beethoven or Pink Floyd. The strength of one’s personality gives them a confidence in their own, revolutionary, ideas – the self-respect, as Logan Smith says, to not ‘peep at their reflections in unexpected mirrors’ of other people’s disparaging views and to press forward irrespective.

Although society is the source of many of our values and beliefs, the core values that truly make up our individual self come from our personality – or, if you like, our soul. However, these core values are, to some extent, based on those of the society around us. In the end, though, it is acting on these core values, usually modified somewhat from societal values, that bring us true happiness in self-confidence, rather than acting purely on the values that society brings us. They enable us to ‘stand a lot’, through being able to ‘stand ourselves’, as Axel Munthe says, allowing us to be that ‘tall poppy’ if need be, irrespective of others’ views.