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-   -   The problem of conformity (https://www.musicbanter.com/current-events-philosophy-religion/48955-problem-conformity.html)

boo boo 04-23-2010 07:09 AM

The problem of conformity
 
So, one day while surfing the web for decent bald chick porn (what?) I come across this website (not a porn site) called FACE WORLD - FACE OFF

It's an environmentalist site in which all members male and female protest the use of hair products that are harmful to the environment by shaving their heads and vowing to keep it that way for the rest of their lives.

Now personally, any political movement that gets more gals to shave their heads is alright with me. Hair really isn't a big deal among men, lots of guys shave their heads. But for women, I certainly find it efreshing when women are confident enough not to rely on their hair to feel attractive.

However I find this particular movement to be contradictory and dishonest. First and foremost, there's other alternatives to using harmful hair products than headshaving. And there are other things just as harmful. Like body wash and tooth paste, I certainly hope people aren't against those things too.

However for these people it's also a statement of opposition to the vanity of hair as a symbol of beauty. Fair enough. But I've seen these people argue on Youtube and a lot of them are assh*les who call people sheep for not subscribing to their fashion sense, as in "anyone who doesnt shave their heads is doing it for selfish reasons".

Give me a break. A lot of them even argue that it's not about non conformity, and that non comformity is a bad thing that the media promotes to control people and that it should be about unity.

Yeah, it's all about that new age spiritual crap. These people also seem to be very misanthropic in general.

But anyway, they argue about how hair is a symbol of the ego and that everyone who invests in taking care of their hair have an ego problem.

Now wait a minute, if you're shaving your hair just to make a statement, then you too care about image and wouldn't it be dishonest to not admit that you yourself have an ego to satisfy?

And thus we have the main problem of conformity. Every revolutionary art movement, every revolutionary musical movement, every revolutionary fashion movement, they have always been based around the idea of nonconformity. But once these lead to new subcultures, they themselves become a system of conformity.

What happens when everyone shaves their heads? Then shiney scalps would become the new status symbol, women with the smoothest scalps with a minimum of scars, cuts and pimples would be most desirable. :laughing:

Lets not forget that once upon a time, long hair was a symbol of nonconformity, and that short hair was looked upon as conformity, headshaving is used by the millitary as a symbol of uniformity and blind allegiance, and it's also associated with skinheads.

It's a never ending cycle, the acts of unconformity today are the acts of conformity tomorrow. That's just the way it has always been since society has been around.

Is there a solution? F*ck no.

Other than my solution, and that's just not giving a sh*t weither people think you're a conformist or not.

It's one of the greatest contradictions of the human race, all men are created equal, only they're not. We have the conflict of being alike but not being that much alike. The idea of conformity vs anti conformity is so black and white, it just isn't that simple.

The truth is, things are neither inherently conformist or anti-conformist, they just are.

So, to quote one of my favorite Rush songs. "If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice". Corniest lyrics ever? Sure, but it's kinda true. Even if you choose to be a "conformist", that's still your choice. Pressuring people NOT to conform is itself a demand for conformity.

Every person is unique even when they imitate each other, why can't people understand that? People make a big deal about how the media controls us, but if you do things just to spite the media or challenge it, you're still being influenced by it are you not?

It's just basic human nature to imitate things we think are cool, personally, I see nothing wrong with that. I just wish more people were intellectually honest and accept that people are gonna do what they want to do and not pretend that they have all the right answers.

bubu 04-23-2010 11:09 AM

All men are created equal doesn't refer to this. The difference in age, height, weight, hair color and attitude has nothing to do with the quote.

It's really about the fact that every man can make any choice he wants and he is free to try to accomplish anything he can think of.

Misinterpretation is the basis of religion. And after you institute a certain belief system into a person's head you can make every other opinion look bad just because it contradicts the higher authority figure that you created.

This is what manipulation is really about. We shouldn't care about what the media does, because ultimately it can alter none of our decisions, so it is irrelevant.

Any group that has hairy ideas is worthy of our ignorance and nothing else because they are trying to fight their best ally, the world.

boo boo 04-23-2010 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bubu (Post 855414)
All men are created equal doesn't refer to this. The difference in age, height, weight, hair color and attitude has nothing to do with the quote.

It's really about the fact that every man can make any choice he wants and he is free to try to accomplish anything he can think of.

Misinterpretation is the basis of religion. And after you institute a certain belief system into a person's head you can make every other opinion look bad just because it contradicts the higher authority figure that you created.

This is what manipulation is really about. We shouldn't care about what the media does, because ultimately it can alter none of our decisions, so it is irrelevant.

Any group that has hairy ideas is worthy of our ignorance and nothing else because they are trying to fight their best ally, the world.

I agree with the first part but not so much the second, the media certainly influences our opinions, but so does... EVERYTHING.

The media really is the great scapegoat these days.

Freebase Dali 04-23-2010 02:45 PM

Everyone conforms to something. Clothes, hair, food... not to mention ideals, political stances, morals... It's necessary to subscribe to something, unless we're deluded enough to think we're a product of our own making individually.
I personally don't think general conformity is a bad thing at all. The issue really lies with what we're conforming to and whether it's a negative force in our lives or not.
The challenge is caring enough to use insight and experience to analyze these things we adopt so we can make the right decisions for ourselves.

In context with a bunch of women shaving their heads to save the environment, I think that's a little misguided as to the effectiveness that will ever have... but it's obviously more of a statement and less of a "solution", which probably the wrong way to go about things.

CAPTAIN CAVEMAN 04-23-2010 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali (Post 855568)
Everyone conforms to something.

http://www.oglethorpe.edu/faculty/~k...les_Manson.jpg

boo boo 04-23-2010 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali (Post 855568)
In context with a bunch of women shaving their heads to save the environment, I think that's a little misguided as to the effectiveness that will ever have... but it's obviously more of a statement and less of a "solution", which probably the wrong way to go about things.

Yeah, but if they're attractive and put their headshave videos up on youtube I won't complain. :pimp:

This movement is gaining quite a following so I'm not gonna generalize about everyone involved with it.

Some of them do it to make the statement that hair is a symbol of superficial beauty and vanity. I have nothing against hair (I have a lot of it myself) but I can understand that point of view, because hair really does seem to play a big role in modern culture and women take it very f*cking seriously and the media constantly perpetuates the importance of hair as it's considered the ultimate symbol of femininity.

I'm attracted to women who sport the bald look for several reasons but confidence is the big one. I think the more attractive women who shave their heads do it at least in part because they have enough confidence in their sexual attractiveness that they don't need to rely on hair and consider it a veil or a distraction. In some circumstances I've seen women go from average looking to bombshells when sporting the look, it puts all the focus on the face.

Oh sh*t I'm blabbing on again (I should just make a bald chick thread and get it over with) but anyway, that's just my observation.

I do think declining from the use of hair products is an admirable thing and could have a positive effect if enough people do it, but by enough people I mean practically everybody, and that's not gonna happen so people need to think of more realistic solutions.

If people were to go all the way with this thing about not using products that harm the environment, they would have to stop using soap to bathe with or toothpaste for brushing or toilet paper to wipe their asses with, after a few years of not doing any of these things it would get pretty gross I would say. These things are actual necessities.

Though I guess the argument being made is that hair care isn't a necessity, that is true.

But again, people have had hair long before shampoo or hairspray were ever invented, back then they had other ways of maintaining it, like water. There's also natural hair care products made from hemp, coconut oil, etc that are environmentally friendly so there's other alternatives.

People have pointed this out on some videos from this site's youtube page, and some of these guys got pissy and went on about how "it doesn't matter, by keeping your hair you're giving others permission to use these products".

That is just moral imperialism at it's most ridiculous level, people don't need permission to use these products, they have the right to do whatever the f*ck they want. Do what you want to do but don't be a d*ck to me because I like my full head of hair.

Also some of the people from this website like to make really silly puns regarding hair products.

Shame-poo
CON-dictioner
Hair-DIE

Clever.

Freebase Dali 04-23-2010 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CAPTAIN CAVEMAN (Post 855697)

Do you normally take things out of context just to be an ass, or because you literally can't understand the entire post?

Neapolitan 04-23-2010 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boo boo (Post 855343)
Yeah, it's all about that new age spiritual crap. These people also seem to be very misanthropic in general.

But anyway, they argue about how hair is a symbol of the ego and that everyone who invests in taking care of their hair have an ego problem.

FACE WORLD- FACE OFF
http://i43.tinypic.com/16p6s9.jpg

They make an accusation that pople who take care of their hair becuase of their "Ego." Every time they shave their hair they are indeed taking care of their hair, probably more so then the average people. I'm sure it takes more "Ego" to do what they ask then to keep your hair the way you want, for any reason. Most people do their hair and forget about it, while they prance around thinking "I'm making a statement, I shaved my head!" & "Hey look at that hairy person with a tremendous ego."

They make it seem that the only option to conventional shampoo is a bald head, which isn't true, there are other options that are natural alternatives to shampoo like using baking soda & vinegar. While they reject shampoo because of chemicals, what are their solution for disposable razors? (if they said so, I didn't comb through the article to find out) But is the future generations suppose to inherit a mountain of disposable razors all thanx to Face World? I did read where they said they have to train the body to use only water [no shaving cream] when they shave, which I find totally riduculous find a natural lubricant like olive oil or something.

[Just the other day I came across a razor so one can shave their head, it was a razor attached to what looked like a toy truck, so when I saw it I wonder who would bother to do that, so you answered my question.]

boo boo 04-23-2010 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neapolitan (Post 855760)
FACE WORLD- FACE OFF
http://i43.tinypic.com/16p6s9.jpg

They make an accusation that pople who take care of their hair becuase of their "Ego." Every time they shave their hair they are indeed taking care of their hair, probably more so then the average people. I'm sure it takes more "Ego" to do what they ask then to keep your hair the way you want, for any reason. Most people do their hair and forget about it, while they prance around thinking "I'm making a statement, I shaved my head!" & "Hey look at that hairy person with a tremendous ego."

They make it seem that the only option to conventional shampoo is a bald head, which isn't true, there are other options that are natural alternatives to shampoo like using baking soda & vinegar. While they reject shampoo because of chemicals, what are their solution for disposable razors? (if they said so, I didn't comb through the article to find out) But is the future generations suppose to inherit a mountain of disposable razors all thanx to Face World? I did read where they said they have to train the body to use only water [no shaving cream] when they shave, which I find totally riduculous find a natural lubricant like olive oil or something.

[Just the other day I came across a razor so one can shave their head, it was a razor attached to what looked like a toy truck, so when I saw it I wonder who would bother to do that, so you answered my question.]


I'm pretty sure they use straight razors or something reusable.

I'm not gonna slam everyone involved in the movement, especially the babes.

I really admire the idea, I'm just not fond of the tone or pompous responses to criticism.

CAPTAIN CAVEMAN 04-23-2010 06:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali (Post 855734)
Do you normally take things out of context just to be an ass, or because you literally can't understand the entire post?

well its not like it was hard to understand so i'm gonna have to say the former


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