Conforming Through Necessity: The Individual Versus Society

            Imagine you're in a diner for the first time and you're alone. What on Earth do you do? Do you catch the attention of the woman with the flustered expression on her face and clipboard in hand? Do you wait for someone to come to you? You are lost, and you know that only society can give you the answer.

            What kind of advice will you take to solve your dilemma? Goebbels would tell you not only to grab the waitress, but to make it meticulously clear what you want (5 buttermilk pancakes, no syrup), as he did in his address to the German people during WW2 (. Hirohito would tell you to wait, as you don't want to come off as aggressive and get yourself in more of a pickle than you already are, that being that you don't know what you're doing, as he did in his address to the Japanese at the end of WW2. What these two have in common is that they both are commanding the people, are setting a sort of a standard for many to follow, and many will, as what other options do they have? What else can they do? They have no idea what they're doing, so they'll listen to whoever tells them what to do, to whatever social standard is implemented. Society has given their word, and the individual, having no other known option, is forced to follow.

             Let's switch gears for a second. Being in a tight spot is like taking a math test. You approach a problem on a test, and you find yourself surprised to see that you have absolutely no idea what you're looking at (Let's say it's Trigonometry, why not?). We've all been there. We know what it feels like to be totally lost, as you are now. Wait... The light bulb goes off. Of course! That formula that your teacher taught you! That formula that your teacher taught you because some dude a hundred years ago was playing around with numbers (who does that?). A^2+B^2=C^2 Of course! You look at your triangle, and it hits you. How in god's name would you be able to answer that question without knowing that? The answer is simple: you wouldn't. Without the knowledge that society has given you (in this case, you've been given the theorem), you'd be lost. One cannot function without the norms and regulations, or formulas, of society. Unfortunately for you, there is no formula that tells you how to order your pancakes.

            So what do you do? You've weighed your options, and the time to make your decision is now.  Are you sure you want to wait? Sure, it's the easier way out, but you could always assert yourself and get the food faster. You could try to work out all the possibilities based on social norms, but that implies that you know the norms to begin with, and do you really? You know that society has given you a host of answers, and it's up to you to get your bearings. So go ahead, order your food, because in the end, you know that's what society wants you to do.