Writing for an Academic Discussion Is it better to stay true to yourself at all times? - revised -

Do you believe it’s better to stay true to who you are at all times, or to shape your behavior depending on the context? (Class on personal development)

 

 

☆Let’s Think

1.       What does “to stay true to who you are” mean?

2.       Have you ever been in a situation where you had to act against your taste, belief, or value? What did you do?

 

Note: This proposition is based on the preface that most people’s core value is fundamentally good in the sense that it won’t go against basic moral, such as not to kill anyone as everyone has the right to live, and therefore it is often difficult to abide by it; or else, there will be nothing to inquire because it is easy to stay who you are if your core value is evil.

 

 

☆Hints for Points

It’s better to stay true to who you are at all times:

1.       There are moral values that cannot be compromised. What is right is right.

2.       If you betray yourself, you will never be the same.

3.       We can easily come up with excuses not to do the right thing, so it’s important to try to stay ethical.

4.       You don’t have to be nice to everyone.

 

It’s better to shape your behavior depending on the context:

1.        When in Rome, do as Romans do.

2.        The real world won’t let you to stay who you are. What is right is not always right depending on the context.

3.        There are situations where you have to demean yourself to survive. In this case, you are a victim of the circumstance, although there are cases in which no excuse is allowed.

 

 

☆Sample Response for Ideas and Expressions

Although I partly agree with Nadia’s opinion that people can compromise their principles depending on the situation as a strategy to adapt, like learning to tell a white lie, when it comes to whether you should abide by your core values, I think you should always do the right thing because you will lose yourself by not doing so and will be punished by others or yourself later in addition to the obvious moral reasons.

   During WWII, there were people who knowingly got killed by rejecting conscription so that they wouldn’t have to kill other humans. However, most of the others didn’t care about committing homicide. After the war, soldiers who committed war crimes, which were also crimes against humanity, were caught and sent to the courts, most of them sentenced to death. Among them, there might have been individuals who would have lived a peaceful life if not sent to war. In a life-or-death situation, they bet on surviving by turning themselves evil, lived a nightmare, and got killed in the end. Justice didn’t save most of the other soldiers, either, who also committed atrocities but were let go probably because they were supposed to have followed orders or peer pressure in the extraordinary circumstances of war, or just because there were too many to punish. They suffered from the guilt consciously or unconsciously. It is said that the short temper and violence of old Japanese men is a legacy of the last war. In the insane cases like war, those few that stick to themselves get what religions call an eternal life while those who give up their principles will suffer from the death of their soul for the rest of their lives and will demise sooner or later without salvation, and strictly speaking it is impossible to decide that our times are not insane because no one can tell if we are crazy when everyone is crazy. Gaza, for instance, tells us how most people around the world can easily lose integrity and have no qualms about ignoring the derangement of the genocide.

   Thus, we should always comply with the moral standard, and daily practice of it is necessary. Human mind is weak. We can come up with thousands of reasons to flinch, to betray what you believe is right, or even to be unkind. If you make it a rule to act in accordance with the situation, you may make a wrong choice in a critical moment of life. Therefore, you should always try to adhere to your core value.  (424 words)