22.4: Socialization

Most people’s basic picture of the world is largely determined by what they were taught as they grew up. Young and helpless infants don’t have the tools to question the things their parents teach them; until master a certain amount of language, they don’t possess the words or concepts required to frame challenges or doubts. As we acquire language, we get a set of categories and principles for thinking about the world. As we are rewarded and chastised, we acquire a sense of what is right and what is wrong.

In our early years, we absorb many of the beliefs of the people raising us, entirely unaware we are doing so. As we grow older, additional social forces come into play: teachers, peers, the mass media, and so on.

Think of the beliefs that are most important to you. They are likely to include beliefs about things like religion, morality, patriotism, and love. Can you recall a time when someone reasoned with you and got you to change your mind about these matters? Did you ever seriously entertain the thought that some religious or moral views quite different from your own might be true and that yours might be false? If you had grown up in a culture with a very different religion or morality, what do you suppose you would now think about these matters?

Certainly, people sometimes change their views about such matters; some are converted to religion or come to see it as much more important than they had in the past (they are “born again”), while others lose their faith. But many people acquire such beliefs when they are very young, and they retain them with little alteration for the rest of their lives. The fact that you acquired a belief simply because your parents held it doesn’t mean that it’s false.

But if you continue to hold it solely because other people taught you to do so, you are handing control of your mind over to others. Of course, no one has time to constantly examine all their fundamental beliefs. But it is healthy to examine some of them now and again, and the years you spend in college are a particularly good time to do it. You may finish the process with the same views you have now. But if you have thought about them critically, they will then be your views.

Exercises

1. Can you remember a time when you didn’t hold pretty much the beliefs that you have now about religion? About morality?
2. If you had grown up in a very different culture, one with a quite different religion or morality, what do you suppose you would now think about these matters?