The Hypocrisy of Society

_{I’ve spoken about this topic before, on my old blog, but I wanted to reiterate some of those points here, because I feel as if I’ve had more time to ponder over this topic and develop my thoughts concerning it.}

There is no denying that there are many rules, regulations and conformities put in place by society. There’s also no denying that a lot of these conformities lack logic. As a society, we are beginning to contradict ourselves: “it’s important to be yourself but, no, not quite like that.” Or maybe this isn’t a new concept – maybe society has always existed as a paradox.

But rather than delve deeper into the analysis of the historical ways and conformities of society, I’d rather discuss the thing that confuses me in perhaps most depth: the minority is no longer the minority.

Almost everyone I know seems to settle on the concept of society being a corrupt machine, governed by capitalistic conventions and unrealistic expectations, as if they are detaching themselves from this aggregate. My point being is that we are the people who make up society. If it’s the majority of society who oppose to the ways of society, why are things not changing?

You’ll hear people blame society for the inconveniences within their lives – the unrealistic expectations so commonly accepted and the negative labels attached to people regardless of their actions – but those people are part of what makes up this society that they despise. We blame society but we are society.

If the majority of people truly hate the construction and effects of our society, then why isn’t it changing? Why are we seemingly moving backwards or staying stationary, at the very least, rather than using our collective intelligence to evolve?

Ironically, it appears as if the hatred of society has become a character trait that people force themselves to adopt because it’s deemed socially acceptable. Not in each case, of course, but there are people who state that “imperfections are what make you perfect” but still shred people to pieces because of the tiniest “imperfection” they have. More often that not, these are the very people complaining about this sort of social hypocrisy.

What’s more is that we live in an emotionally broken society. We are unable to get to grips on this world that is evolving in which heterosexuality is not expected and the colour of your skin does not separate or define you. We live in a world that is a paradox containing smaller paradoxes in which something that is considered beautiful in one part of the world is considered anything but beautiful in another. Likewise, what we consider to be “trendy” in terms of fashion will not long be out of trend. It begs the question, why bother trying to fit in with such trends and abide to such absurd conformities when we live in a world that is changing its perceptions by the day? Surely it’s more honest, and easier, to stay true to yourself and forget society’s obsession with trying to imitate the models in the magazines so that we don’t forget who we are.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” –  Ralph Waldo Emerson

The contradictions that lace our every day lives are nonsensical, to say the least, yet we accept them because we are told by the rest of society that we can. We are victims to that which we consume and we are manipulated and controlled by the people who run our society because they do so in a way that makes us believe that we have the choice.

I recently spoke about the damaging affects that the media, in particular, has on the self-confidence of society because of the beauty ideal that it portrays. The sad truth is that we live in a world where one half are starving and the other half are trying to lose weight, and this is because of the twisted, self-obsessed ideologies that we consume and adopt. This society – our society – is corrupt. We, as a collective group, are corrupt.

With this post, I’m calling all of the people who truly want to make a change within our society. I’m calling those who recongnise the corruption in that of objecting to women breast-feeding in public yet supporting and consuming in the dozens of hyper-sexualised magazine covers in which women are objectified and the beauty ideal is fabricated. I’m calling those who disagree with the conventions of the patriarchal society and those who believe that stereotypes should be removed, a man should not be forced to adopt a masculine position, or that equal rights should be something to be expected. I am calling you and I am asking, when will these absurdities stop and shall you be the ones to stop it?