The Permanent Thing
by Luke Ruse
It has been argued since antiquity, and shall be throughout all posterity, the question of what makes man act the way he does. What causes him to respond in certain manners? Why do people make decisions that seem foolish to friends and formers? "Peer pressure" seems to be a popular term thrown around as an answer in today’s philosophical circles of omniscience.
The influence that friends exert over ones life is certainly one to be considered. We are often swayed by the opinions or suggestions, both conscious and unconscious, of those around us. There is a story of a man in the service who was on the food line. He found that the amount of an item a serviceman requested was directly proportional to how he presented the commodity. For example if he unenthusiastically asked, "You don’t want any of this do you?" the response was typically "No." But if he asked "Would you like one scoop or two?" with a smile on his face, he almost always found a willing recipient. If man is created by his environment, as the progressivists so strongly preached during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, then who one is surrounded by and exposed to will greatly shape his thoughts and beliefs.
Negative peer pressure seems to be the more frequently implied term when discussing this pressure. Peers can definitely have a negative effect on one’s decisions and behavior. The conclusion one may easily make in the company of none, can quickly become a gray area when in the presence of his associates. Martin Luther King Jr. explains this uncertainty of thought by declaring, "Feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving…." 1 Corinthians 15:33 concisely states the effects of negative peer pressure. "Evil company corrupts good habits."
The path less looked down however is that of positive peer pressure, the ability for an influence to help you make a wise decision. A positive influence can be just as uplifting as a negative one is destructive. In fact, these positive influences play an irreplaceable role in the process of developing one’s true person. Proverbs 27:17 says, "As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend." To achieve wisdom and the ability to make positive choices it is crucial to have a group of friends one can feel comfortable asking for advice, and be confident with their responses. Proverbs 11:14 tells this very clearly. "Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety."
However neither conformity nor individuality is the ultimate term. Both of these words are relative to the human views and opinions of those around them. All things measured in the eyes of humans are inherently faulty. What must be established is an absolute by which to measure all things. This absolute is truth, as prescribed by God in His Word. Truth is a straight path; narrow and consistent. It does not waver and has no dependence on outside factors. To continue the articulation by Mr. King, "…My warrant is the Word of God naught else is worth believing." A man who walks uprightly need not worry himself with such finite terms as conformity and individuality. As Proverbs 11:3 says, "The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them."
When a man stops judging his actions by the opinions of his peers and starts focusing on the things in life that don’t change, the moral absolutes, his way becomes unbelievably clear and simple. He is no longer swerving back and forth on the path of life with the rest of the mob, nor is he utterly determined to remain an "individual" and make himself stand apart from all others. Because of the swerving patterns of the rest of society, he will sometimes appear to be a conformist and sometimes an individual, but he is neither. He is walking a straight path and terms created by man can no longer be applied to categorize him.
He has become a new creation, freed from the chains of society. This point of realization far surpasses conformity and individuality. It is simple and enlightening truth.