Individualism Issues

I always say that we shouldn't conform to society's wishes and that we should express ourselves freely and in the way that we want, but when we see someone who looks a little different or is wearing something funky, generally no one is going to look at them and say, "wow! that's incredible; how unique! Although their style is different " They would probably say something like "What is that person wearing?! Are they serious right now?" Everyone judges each other based on what their first impression of the person, what they are wearing, what they are doing, and how they speak.

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is judged on a daily basis because she committed adultery and had a child out of wedlock, which of course was scandalous for that time.  The Puritans in this book not only gossiped about her in their private lives, but they also forced her to wear a scarlet A on her all of her blouses to show the world her sin. That's crazy. I understand that this was in the past in a society that looked down upon many things, but how much have we changed?  Honestly, people are still looked down on because of the dumbest of things.  For example, in India there's still a "hush hush" caste system and people continue to follow it, thinking that they're better than someone else because of the "caste" that they were born into. This is kind of the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard because you can't help what you were born into! If your parents are poor then you're born poor too, but you might have the opportunity to change this and become successful. The Indian Caste system was supposedly abolished after India gained independence from Great Britain in 1947, but that obviously did not work, because even today there is a prominent caste system still in place.  In many African countries, homosexuals are killed because of their sexual preference (which they can't help and which shouldn't be a problem).  I just don't understand why this is a problem, why can't we accept everyone for who they are as people and what they are like?

As a world society we need to learn how to be more accepting of others.  People should be able to freely express themselves without being ostracized, but sadly this won't happen soon enough. There needs to be an international acceptance day (sad that it's not everyday) where we learn to be more accepting of people and hopefully in the future it can be everyday.