Ch. 7, The Right to be an Individual Summary and Analysis

The loss of individuality is a great danger, as is the problem between conforming versus nonconforming. Eleanor Roosevelt shares the example of when she disagrees with sentencing a kidnapper to capital punishment, despite pressure to agree with the general public opinion. Pressures to conform have existed since the beginning of time. Two types of conformity are compared and contrasted; there is social conformity and conformity to alien standards, ideas or values because it is easier to agree than disagree. The Soviet Union begins reconditioning men as babies to iron out uniqueness. There is an instance of modus vivendi in the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations; the Soviet Union and the United State interpret it differently because the governments view their citizens differently.

The question of conformity versus...