How I Love Thee, Peer Pressure!

How do I love thee, Peer Pressure? Let me count the ways... 

I love Peer Pressure for how it twists my arm. I love Peer Pressure for forgetting the essence of a group--which is a collection of free individuals. Peer Pressure is wonderful since it forces one to conform out of intimidation and threat of expulsion. I admire Peer Pressure for how it disregards discourse and reason. I just can't get enough of Peer Pressure for forcing someone to come to a decision between leaving or staying. I have to hand it to Peer Pressure for  the simplicity with which it deals with discord or disagreement: be here, or be somewhere else. I like how your value as an individual is contingent upon your conformity to the group. You're dispensable if you just don't agree. Oh how I love thee, Peer Pressure!

Between the individual and the group, something's gotta give. 


I'd like to be dramatic and say it's the individual against the masses. Or like what Nietzsche says, the individual against the herd. Maybe I take my own counsel and company most of the time--I can't be sure--but I am always mystified by this creature called Peer Pressure.

The opposite side can say the same as well. They can be as equally mystified by an individualistic preference. No man is an island after all. Humans are fated/born to be social creatures. So, why the predilection for being alone?

This dichotomy is what's interesting. This polarity is what amazes me. I'm left speechless with this excluded middle. This dualism is what makes me laugh in irony. As someone remarked, you either join them, or leave them. But why should the choice be limited to two? I find that position hilarious. 

Of course, I have  to admit that this is slightly born from bitterness. Maybe, more out of disappointment. I have this penchant for looking things ideally. I always thought that a group allows for personal differences and that a group's strength is derived from diversity rather than homogeneity. I would have thought that assimilation to a group was done through discourse and acceptance rather than subtle coercion. Any goal worth doing is worth communicating properly. I would've preferred persuasion of the diplomatic, not the dictatorial, kind.


I guess I was looking for rational discourse free from pressure. But that would be impossible. When I was younger, I always greeted Peer Pressure with the middle finger and walked out the door. But as you grow older, you get to appreciate the diversity of life and it's viewpoints. You get to have an allergy for absolutes. You become interested to learn how these viewpoints look like before packing your bags. What you can't comprehend isn't necessarily bad; it's still better to create avenues of understanding. Once you get to see things from different viewpoints, that's when you can better judge the situation. Learning to understand is less complicated as well. Hell, it can be just being a pacifist and a coward.

I love Peer Pressure for its directness and simplicity, but I don't like it for it's lack of creativity and flexibility. I like to deal with Peer Pressure with some patience and understanding, but as we know, patience and understanding are exhaustible resources. But until that time, Peer Pressure would continue to have my love and affection. All Hail Peer Pressure!