Beyond Feelings - Vincent Ruggiero.original_ [30]
Beauty pageants today give somewhat more attention to talent than pageants did in the past. But the underlying message is the same "Beauty in a woman is strictly a surface matter. Only those with ample bosoms, pretty faces, and trim figures need apply." These pageants make a mockery of the truth that inner beauty, character, is the real measure of a woman (or of a man).
Group discussion exercise: Discuss with two or three classmates one of the issues you examined in application 5. Be careful that you views are not affected by resistance to change. Be prepared to present your group's view to the class.
1 Thomas A. Harris, I'm OK – You're OK: A Practical Guide to Transactional Analysis (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), p.36
2 "Darwin Doubted in Scopes's Town, New York Times, October 1, 1972, p.24.
3 "The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy," The Antioch Review, 1948, pp. 193-210
4 Thomas A. Harris, I'm OK – You're OK: A Practical Guide to Transactional Analysis (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), pp.22-23.
5 "Anna Freud, Psychoanalyst, Dies at 86," New York Times, October 10, 1982, p. 46.
6 Rona and Laurence Cherry, "The Horney Heresy," New York Times, Magazine, August 26, 1973, pp.12ff.
7 This idea has actually been advanced by Christopher Stone, Professor of Law at USC, in his book Should Trees Have Standing? Published by William Kaufmann Co., Los Altos, California. He argues that such rights would make it easier to take legal action against destroyers of the ecology.
8 This approach was used in the 1982 California primary and reported in "Game Show Prizes Entice CA Voters," The (Oneonta) Star, June 4, 1982, p.1.
9 This idea was tested by an education researcher, Eileen Bayer. It proved successful. (Fred M. Hechinger, "Grandpa Goes to Kindergarten," New York Times, October 29, 1972, Sec.4, p.11.
10 The Reagan Administration discussed this plan and indicated it was not opposed to it. (U.S. Considering National ID Cards," The (Oneonta) Star, May 21, 1982, p.1.)
11 Karla Valance, "This Time, the Rebel's on the Right," Christian Science Monitor, January 27, 1983, p.B1. Also: George Basler, "Student Paper urges Theft and Graffiti," Binghamton Press, January 25, 1983, p.1F.
12 harry Atkins, "Football, Hockey Are X-Rated," Binghamton Press, December 19, 1982, p.60.
P2-C07-6
CHAPTER EIGHT
CONFORMITY
Conformity is behaving the way others around us do. In many ways conformity is desirable. Children are conforming when they stay away form the hot stove and look both ways before crossing the street. Automobile drivers are conforming when they obey traffic signs and signals. Hospital workers are conforming when they sterilize the operating room. These cases of conformity make living safer. Conformity can also make daily activities more productive. When the employees of a department store arrive at their work places at the specified time each day, the store can open promptly without inconveniencing its customers. When supermarket stock clerks stock the various items in their designated places, customers can shop more efficiently.
Similarly, in a hundred different ways, from using the "up" escalator to go up, to not parking by a fire hydrant, to using the door on the right side when entering or exiting a building, conformity makes life less confusing for ourselves and others. And by conforming to the rules of etiquette we make it more pleasant.
Without a measure of conformity people would never learn to hold a pencil, let alone write. More complex skills, like flying a plane or operating a computer, would be impossible to acquire. How much nonconformity, after all, does the job of driving a car permit? Can we drive facing sideways or to the rear? Can we accelerate with our left hand and blow the horn with our right foot? Certainly not without some frustration. Yet these limitations are