Blind conformity is irrational and may even hurt others. As we have seen in the movie “ The Hunt,” Lucas is a teacher who never turns down a child’s needs. Therefore, the kindergarten children all like him pretty much. Lucas often helped one of a little girl named Clara, and Clara grew to like him. Then, Clara made little heart-shaped gifts and stuffed them into Lucas’s bag, and she also rushed up and kissed Lucas on the mouth. However, faced with Clara’s advances, Lucas refused without hesitation, and he told the little girl that kissing behaviors only happened between mom and dad. Surprisingly, in a moment anger, Clara complained to the kindergarten director that Lucas had sexually harassed her. Not only that, but Clara also told the kindergarten director about the sexual remarks to discredit Lucas, but she had overheard from some older children about sex. Therefore, it was believed that children could not lie, and the kindergarten director, who had suspected Clara’s wild imagination, began to believe that she had indeed been molested. Importantly, the incident aroused conformity among the mass of people.
To define the term “Conformity,” which is changing one’s behavior or beliefs to accord with others. (P.183). For example, the news of Lucas’ sexual harassment reached the public, the kindergarten director, who had been skeptical, now specified that Lucas would do something disgusting. As a result, the kindergarten director stopped Lucas from working to prevent the school’s reputation from being tarnished in the minds of parents and children. Additionally, all children described the color of the Lucas basement, the wallpaper, and the sofa. It does seem that Lucas has molested more little girls. Besides, when Lucas’ mother heard of his son’s sexual assault of a little girl at kindergarten, she was in a state of outrage and swore that she did not want to see Lucas at all. Therefore, conformity is not just acting as other people act; it is also being affected by how they act. (P.183).
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Also, private conformity is one form of conformity, which means the change in beliefs that occurs when a person privately accepts the position taken by others. Most people who are living in this small town also show private conformity; they believe that do the most of individuals that are doing is correct. For example, the masses believed that they are not the ones who inflict harm, but the ones who do justice. Residents living in this town killed Lucas’ dog to punish Lucas. Apart from that, the shop assistants refused to sell everything to Lucas and even ganged upon him. Moreover, when Lucas’ son went to the supermarket, the clerk asked him to tell his father not to come again because the other customers would not come to the supermarket due to his presence. Clearly, this conformity not only keeps consistent with the group in outward behavior but also agrees with the group in the inner view.
Additionally, one of Lucas’ friends called Theo shot also hit Lucas. The reason is that he thought Lucas did since Clara said. However, It seems that Theo has been Lucas’ friend for long, and Theo is at heart suspicious of the group’s judgments. Thus, Lucas’ friend Theo was more inclined to show public conformity that accords with others. Specifically, Public conformity is another form of conformity. It is a superficial change in overt behaviors without a corresponding change of opinions produced by real or imagined group pressure. For instance, once better friends and neighbors, who had forgotten that they knew the kind Lucas, chose to believe the rumors of child molestation rather than believe Lucas. Therefore, public conformity refers to that although individuals keep consistent with the group in behavior, they suspect that the choice of group is wrong, and the truth lies in their hearts, only under the pressure of the masses, temporarily keep consistent with the group in behavior.
To sum up, conformity is sometimes positive and sometimes negative. We should think of some of the advantages and disadvantages of conforming. For Lucas, everyone who lived in the small town decided that he was a sexual assault. As a result, the passive conformity of the masses damaged Lucas’ reputation and even hurt himself. For society, blind conformity leads the masses to assume that everything they see is the biases for their ideas and that the real evidence and clues are deliberately ignored or misinterpreted. Therefore, everyone has conformity, but they necessarily need to control their conformity rationally; otherwise, negative conformity may result in the Lucas history we saw in the movie repeat itself.
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