The relationship between individuality and conformity.

The Importance of Rules to Individuality

There is no doubt that the individuality of an individual sometimes conflicts with the rules of the society in which he or she lives. For example, a person cannot choose to grow cabbages in a public park just because usurping public land for private enterprise is against the law. Whatever behavior is beyond the authority of the law, society may enforce codes of behavior simply through the power of its approval or disapproval. Similarly, if what teenagers have done is socially unacceptable behavior, such as colorful dyed hair, a pierced navel, or lighting a cigarette, they may be held forth by public voice. In such occasions, some people may think public regulations restrict their freedom and individuality. Nevertheless, most people naturally want to live in an orderly environment, they generally choose to obey the rules of their society. In most areas of life, adults generally are forced to conform to community standards of conduct, and while some people may find such rules comforting, others consider it irritating and even demeaning. However, in my opinion, proper rules is quite essential to individuality, as they have positive impacts on people’s inner behavior, reasonable rules are formulated in order to safeguard the benefits of everyone, and good management can maintain citizens’ freedom.

In the first place, proper rules can subtly improve one’s inner behavior. Human individuality refers to being different from others not only in outside appearance, but also in inner behavior. As a Chinese proverbgoes , no square and circle without rules .Forinstance ,there are some rules in class. Students have to go to school on time .If not, they will miss some class and disturb the classmates. They should also follow what the teacher says in the class ,but shouldn’t talk casually in class. In the long term, students can constraint the shaping of bad habits, cultivate beneficial habituation and develop a good sense of self-discipline. Besides, rules can help people build strong values of distinguishing right and wrong, which urge them to behave individually. That means judging various situations according to one’s own outlook and mind instead of being affected by others.

In the second place, any rules or regulations should be formulated in order to safeguard individual benefits. If one could not protect his personal interests, how would he display his individuality? Law is the basic way to protect the interests of citizens. When their interests are infringed, they should take legal weapons to safeguard their rights. Take some laws as examples, intellectual property law protects intangible intellect effort, and a patent is a governmental grant of an exclusive monopoly as an incentive and a reward for a new invention. These laws undoubtedly conserve many masterpieces created by human individuality. Thus laws have made positive contributions to promote the development of personality.

Last but not least, proper rules can bring forth good management, which can maintain citizens’ freedom and offer them good opportunities to perform their own individuality. In the west, there is a very popular saying: In heaven, people live in the United Kingdom's castle, the German cars, Chinese cooks, enjoy the American democracy, and that all this is under the management of the Swiss, because the Swiss are good at management. There are many rules and regulations in Switzerland as follows: Citizens every day after 22:00 can not make much noise; No mower on Sunday; Rubbish must be categorized and thrown in the specified time and place; even the private tree that is also subject to special government institutional reform can be approval of being cut. Many problems, including where industrial zones are built, what the color of each household’s roof is and how wide the windows should open, must go through governmental approval. It appears that the Swiss "Europe Park" originates from the good reputation of the government's