Duke of Norfolk: Why can't you do as I did and come with us, for fellowship?
Sir Thomas More: And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?
--A Man for All Seasons
Unlike the pressure felt when benchpressing barbells in the weightroom, social pressure is not physical force. It is not force at all. Social pressure does not even come from external sources.
Social pressure is a construct. It reflects a state of mind. We tell ourselves that we need to act or think a certain way because others want us to.
We make a choice to 'feel' social pressure. No outside influence is effective unless we admit it into our person.
We can also choose to not let others dictate our existence.
Whether we live our lives on our terms or on someone else's terms, in the end each of us alone will be accountable for the choices we make. We cannot lay off accountability on someone else.
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1 comment:
First of all, although men have a common destiny, each individual also has to work out his own personal salvation for himself in fear and trembling. We can help one another to find the meaning of life no doubt. But in the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for "finding himself." If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence. You cannot tell me who I am and I cannot tell you who you are. If you do not know your own identity, who is going to identify you?
~Thomas Merton
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