Ideals are behaviours, goals, or attitude that are considered 'perfect' or 'desirable' by groups of people.
Many ideals such as those of desiring to live a full life or desiring to be wealthy are common around the world, and widely agreed upon. However, ideals are formed from cultural expectations and societal attitudes; so depending where one is in the world, these ideals can be considered undesirable. The ideals of one culture and society can vary greatly from those of another and these differences often cause conflict.
For instance, in Saudi Arabia, women are culturally considered to be 'inferior' and in need of protection. This leads to certain cultural rules that are implemented, such as the idea that women should not be allowed to drive at all. However, since Saudi Arabia is only one country on this earth, and every other country in the world allows women to drive (even if there is still sexism surrounding female drivers), there is often conflict surrounding this, as females in Saudi Arabia start to want the same freedoms that women in the rest of the world are allowed. This has led to such incidents as women being imprisoned for driving in protest of the cultural laws. However, because ideals grow stronger the more people support them, this stigma in Saudi Arabia is slowing going away and women are slowly being allowed to drive - simply because the pressure from the rest of the world's seven billion people is too much for one country to resist.
This idea that ideals are influenced and even completely reversed by societal peer pressure is illustrated in George Orwell's essay: Shooting an Elephant. In it, Orwell is pressured into shooting a peaceful elephant (something that his own ideals and moral compass would prevent him from doing normally) by the pressures and expectations of thousands of Burmese people watching him. Because in this situation he is a English police officer, and he needs to maintain 'face' and the respect of the people in order to do his job, he is forced to shoot the elephant as not shooting it would have led to the massive crowd ridiculing him.
These stories perfectly illustrate that ideals are not universal, what is accepted in one part of the world may be despicable in another. Ideals and goals for life change from culture to culture and one must always be respectful of other people's ideals and goals lest they find themselves being the one ridiculed for their ideals.
Switching paths for a moment, let's talk about peer pressure; the kind that Orwell was faced with. If you were in front of a crowd of two thousand people waiting for you to do what they expected of you, would you do it? Would you be able to ignore that pressure and just do what felt right to you anyways? Personally, I think that my answer to this question relies on the nature of what they were expecting me to do. I would be lying if I said that without fail, for any situation, I would not give in and I would do what I wanted to. I think that in such a situation, I would rely on an altered version of my normal moral compass and decision making processes to determine what I would do. For instance, in that situation with a large crowd expecting me to do something that I wouldn't normally do, I would question whether not doing this action would be worth risking the potential ridicule, mob violence, or public shaming that could result from not following the group's expectations. There are things that I would never do, even under such pressure, such as physical or sexual abuse, murder, suicide, engaging in life-threatening activities (running across a busy highway, anyone?); but there are also things that I wouldn't normally do by myself that, in the case of such pressure, I would probably give in and do.
Many ideals such as those of desiring to live a full life or desiring to be wealthy are common around the world, and widely agreed upon. However, ideals are formed from cultural expectations and societal attitudes; so depending where one is in the world, these ideals can be considered undesirable. The ideals of one culture and society can vary greatly from those of another and these differences often cause conflict.
For instance, in Saudi Arabia, women are culturally considered to be 'inferior' and in need of protection. This leads to certain cultural rules that are implemented, such as the idea that women should not be allowed to drive at all. However, since Saudi Arabia is only one country on this earth, and every other country in the world allows women to drive (even if there is still sexism surrounding female drivers), there is often conflict surrounding this, as females in Saudi Arabia start to want the same freedoms that women in the rest of the world are allowed. This has led to such incidents as women being imprisoned for driving in protest of the cultural laws. However, because ideals grow stronger the more people support them, this stigma in Saudi Arabia is slowing going away and women are slowly being allowed to drive - simply because the pressure from the rest of the world's seven billion people is too much for one country to resist.
This idea that ideals are influenced and even completely reversed by societal peer pressure is illustrated in George Orwell's essay: Shooting an Elephant. In it, Orwell is pressured into shooting a peaceful elephant (something that his own ideals and moral compass would prevent him from doing normally) by the pressures and expectations of thousands of Burmese people watching him. Because in this situation he is a English police officer, and he needs to maintain 'face' and the respect of the people in order to do his job, he is forced to shoot the elephant as not shooting it would have led to the massive crowd ridiculing him.
These stories perfectly illustrate that ideals are not universal, what is accepted in one part of the world may be despicable in another. Ideals and goals for life change from culture to culture and one must always be respectful of other people's ideals and goals lest they find themselves being the one ridiculed for their ideals.
Switching paths for a moment, let's talk about peer pressure; the kind that Orwell was faced with. If you were in front of a crowd of two thousand people waiting for you to do what they expected of you, would you do it? Would you be able to ignore that pressure and just do what felt right to you anyways? Personally, I think that my answer to this question relies on the nature of what they were expecting me to do. I would be lying if I said that without fail, for any situation, I would not give in and I would do what I wanted to. I think that in such a situation, I would rely on an altered version of my normal moral compass and decision making processes to determine what I would do. For instance, in that situation with a large crowd expecting me to do something that I wouldn't normally do, I would question whether not doing this action would be worth risking the potential ridicule, mob violence, or public shaming that could result from not following the group's expectations. There are things that I would never do, even under such pressure, such as physical or sexual abuse, murder, suicide, engaging in life-threatening activities (running across a busy highway, anyone?); but there are also things that I wouldn't normally do by myself that, in the case of such pressure, I would probably give in and do.