Friday, April 12, 2013

Social Identity and Moral Responsibility


One way in which the outside world has influenced me, is when I started learning Spanish. When I went to college and started taking classes I decided that it made perfect sense to learn the language and I started getting interested. This interest was brought on by the many Spanish speakers in this country. I thought to myself that it would make me smarter, better rounded, and a better communicator. Just the thought of being able to speak another language and to be able to speak to others that you normally can’t, opened up the world.

 Something that happened as my own choice of creativity was becoming an eagle scout. When I was a cub scout my parents kind of forced me to do it, but over the years I really enjoyed it and chose to keep with it out of my own decisions. I chose what merit badges to do and I was determined to get eagle. I guess this event in my life stemmed from my love for the outdoors. I like camping and being outside so I influenced myself to stay with it.

When it comes to influence over our lives I think about 65% is determined by society and 35% is determined by personal desire. Most decisions are influenced by “what’s this person going to think” or “does this look good”. People take the opinions of other people very seriously and let it mold the good majority of everyday actions. Now when your home or in private or just on occasion everybody forgets and doesn’t care what others think and just do what they want. Although everybody does wish that they influenced themselves 100% that’s not the case.

Living in a society as most Humans do is something we’ve done in order to help each other out in our lives. We depend on each other for support in life. Weather its help in farming, building shelter, hunting, or any other things in life we need support from others to do it effectively. On our own it would be difficult to get everything that one needs to survive done on time. Yes our social identity does increase our responsibility of others. We need to be more responsible so that we don’t put others in danger. We need to help others out of danger so that we can continue to benefit from their help. Being part of a community helps us feel safe and somewhat secure from the outside elements of the natural world. You can depend on those around you if you really need to and you’re less likely to die. Society also gives people a sense of belonging by giving them a position that they can help the community benefit with. If you help the community survive longer than it gives you a sense of worth. Also it allows for people to concentrate fully on one job instead of minimally on multiple jobs. There is a reason why people don’t like camping or going out into the wilderness and this is because of the lack of civilization. This scares people and makes them want to leave.

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