corn pone opinions

corn pone opinions

Self Approval and Public Opinion:
Helpful or Otherwise?

    Thinking critically is very important (,) that is what Mark Twain tries to explain in corn pone opinions (“Corn Pone Opinions”), he tries to say that people do not think critically but they just follow what everyone else is doing. Our manners, fashion, politics change from time to time and people follow them without reasoning. People do not think critically and follow what the majority is doing under social pressure (,) which is affecting our natural thinking. <<(sentence is a little confusing) Public opinion and self-approval play an important role here, where as if we take everyone’s thoughts into consideration it would be a big mess with all thoughts pouring in.    
    Twain recalls that fifty years ago, when he was fifteen, he used to live on the banks of river Mississippi, he had a friend who gave orations everyday and his sole audience was Twain. He considered him as the greatest orator in the United States. His idea was that a man could not put forward his own views, which might affect his prosperity; instead he does what the others are doing. If he does not do what the majority is doing his social status if affected. He must not reason out his own opinions but follow what the majority is doing. Though Twain thought Jerry, the orator and his friend, was correct, he did not go far enough with his ideas. His ideas were that a man conforms to the majority view by calculation and intention and the second is that there a first- hand opinion, but before thinking more about it, it disappears and then he blindly follow what everyone else is doing.
    New fashions appear, people are surprised some criticize, six months later everyone is wearing it. People do not question this but just follow the current trend. Gradually it disappears and a new trend begins. Our table manners, street manners, business manners, religion, politics change from time to time but we never do question them. A man...