“People’s own assessment of their own condition can overlook their objective and can be biased as a result of limited information and social conditioning” – Amartya Sen
Social Conditioning definition for dummies…
Social Conditioning is the sociological process of training individuals to respond in a manner approved by the society which we live in today. There are sooo many ways social conditioning has affected us, especially our generation. Social conditioning starts from as soon as you’re born to the point that you are a fully developed adult. Some examples of social conditioning involve the belief that women must shave to have an appealing vagina, a man must have a chiselled six- pact in order to be deemed social attractive, wearing hoodies makes teens seem “intimidating”, being ginger is a genetic mutation, council house owners are all lazy…these are all things as a society, in general, we TRULY believe.
“Fear, jealousy and anger are manifestations of a lack of being in love. Being in love is possible only when you are in love with yourslef first. Self-love is an inborn quality that has been corroded because of social conditioning. As a result, we forget that love is within is, or rather, we are the source of love.”
The main chunk of our social conditioning comes from our parents and how we were brought up. The rules that our parents put into place, the things we were taught as children by our parents have shaped us into who we are today and although they look like regular etiquettes being preached to us, these are typical examples of social conditioning. This is to teach us to display an acceptable behaviour in front of others. Traditions,culture, religion or habits, anything that is preached generation after generation with nobody opposing or questioning before adopting, are a greathindrance to developing a critical thinking or a free thinking society. So what, being gay wasn’t as social acceptable as it is today, don’t let cloudedpast opinions halt our generation from moving onwards as a more open minded and HAPPY SOCIETY!
“Male social conditioning encourages boys and men to aim to bed as many women as possible….so much so, that their self esteem and self worth become intertwined with the number of sexual partners they have; and when that number is low or even zero, so too is their self-confidence.” ― Miya Yamanouchi
Another good example of social conditioning is the idea that BLUE is for BOYS, PINK is for GIRLS, ACTION MAN for a BOY, BARBIE for a GIRL. These again are examples of traps that most people fall into to conform to the “norms” that society creates. A lot of these norms are not compatible with our nature, they are outdated or often false and misleading but yet we CONTINUE to conform to them, because this is exactly how we have been brought up to behave. The practise and taking of modern medicine is also technically an example of social conditioning. We blindly follow the advice of our GPS and specialists all despite of the fact that many of these treatments often have many side effects. How many times have you heard stories of mis-diagnosis or have been mis-diagnosed yourself? Bear in mind, the same docters prescribing us these medications also have finacial insentives. FACT: It has been estimated that one in six public health patients in the UK have been wrongly mis-diagnosed.
“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience.” Howard Zinn
Throughout our whole lives we will carry on being socially conditioned by our external environment. As humans we are like any other animal, programmed with instincts and behaviours from millions of years of evolution, the only thing separating us from all the other species being our brain’s ability to imagine, rationalise and verbally vocalise. It doesn’t matter if you personally think that you are a ‘unique thinker’, the blunt and honest truth is that we have all been influenced by everything around us. This isn’t by any stretch of the imagination a bad thing, social norms are NORMAL and healthy for a fully functioning society because it ensures a productive and law-abiding civilisation. My problem with this is that most people give no thought to how the outside world, the media, the environment, has shaped them. We all live a life of blissful ignorance dictated by family, friends and people that we have never met on TV and in magazines and we rarely stop to take a moment to realise this. This leads to us living out lives, dry of potential, as we try to create an idealisation of what we see in the media.
“ Since the earliest days of our youth, we have been conditioned to accept that the direction of the herd, and authority anywhere — is always right.” ― Suzy Kassem
To be able to think and act with as much free will as possible, we have to understand when social conditioning is at work. I’m definitely not saying that social conditioning is an all consuming black hole, but it is definitely stopping us from living lives that are true to ourselves. If we know and are aware of it and how it takes place we can use it to our own advantage. It’s about choice and free will. Once we have deconditioned ourselves from it, we are free to disregard it whenever it doesn’t fit with our lifestyle choices. Celebrities, politicians and other people of power and authority are the biggest slaves to social conditioning, their successes have been largely down to proving us, standard folk, wrong. This is not real power, real power is the ability to act and think on our own accord, seeking validation from no one.
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