Why Is Individuality Important?

When Mark Twain said, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect,” he implies that acceptance of the majority rather than the rejection is a matter to be questioned. Every human being is born with a natural right to be and choose what he or she desires. We have the right to make choices that will lead to an ultimate consequence and we are free to choose the actions that will lead to that desired consequence. To some, the freedom of individuality may sound pleasant and to others it may sound frightening, which is demonstrated by the quote, “If people can do, say, and be whatever they please they will make mistakes and it could be chaotic.” This is what someone who is afraid of individuality might
Plummer uses an approach in which he juxtaposes Ophelia syndrome and students in college. Plummer recognizes the similarities in Ophelia’s self-oppression and the easily impressionable minds of college students to state the problem and come up with solutions. Though Plummer’s specific audience is college students Huxley addresses his audience by stating the question, “In an age of accelerating over-population, of accelerating over-organization and ever more efficient means of mass communication, how can we preserve the integrity and reassert the value of the human individual?” (Huxley 251). Huxley’s approach to answering the question begins by stating how one of the world’s most powerful leaders controlled millions of people. Huxley recounts Hitler’s methods of commanding the masses to prove that lack of individuality leads to people who are susceptible to
We are given a certain agency that cannot be taken from us unless we allow it to. One can easily be distracted by matters of the world that restrict us from learning the true nature of one’s own self. Plummer states in his essay that he worries that the university students are not motivated to individuation (Plummer 439). Plummer’s concern gives birth to the idea that university students are more focused on being the best in their classes above all else. But a good student isn’t one who adopts the ideas of the teacher to pass classes. A good student is one who can take what he/she has learned and use it to develop thoughts and ideas of their own. In order for this to happen one must know the value of the individual. One must understand that an independent mind will prosper and is not subject to the limitations of another’s