Independence

Prompt: “Independence? That’s middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.” Bernard Shaw expected to provoke controversy with these words, but I would agree with him that these days there is too much emphasis on independence. While it is certainly true that excessive dependence on others is not a sign of maturity, total independence of others is neither attainable nor desirable: we need to be mature, and unselfish enough to recognize our interdependence.

Topic: Do we put too much emphasis on self-reliance and independence, and are we afraid of admitting that we need other people in our lives?

Do you consider yourself an independent person? Do you like to do things on your own? Or do you heavily rely on people? Neither of those is really a good thing. In this essay I will talk all about independence. Do we put too much emphasis on being independent? You will find out my opinion in this essay.

Let’s break this down and cover the first part of the topic to begin with. “Do we put too much emphasis on self-reliance and independence?” My personal opinion to that is yes. I know that it’s good to be independent, but it’s not good to be so independent that you need no one at all. People were created to need each other. The Bible says that we should help others, and also let others help us. We were not created to be too independent. We were created to depend on others to some extent.

How much is too much when it comes to being self-sufficient? I think it kind of depends on what it is. You shouldn’t need any help to brush your teeth, for example. That’s something that you really can’t be too independent on. There are other things, though, that you should need other people’s help for. A good example of that might be running a business. You need other’s help because you can’t do it on your own. If you try to, I would call that trying to be too independent.

In my opinion, people try to be too independent because that’s what the world is pushing. They say that you shouldn’t need someone’s help when sometimes, that’s not the case. Some people think it’s bad to rely or depend on other people, which leads perfectly into the next paragraph.

The next part of the topic question says “are we afraid of admitting that we need other people in our lives?” I think that most people are. I can’t say that everyone is like this, but I know a lot of people who don’t like to admit that they need others. I’m not quite sure of the reason. Maybe it’s because they don’t want other people to look down on them. Maybe it’s because it makes them feel like they can’t do anything since they’re always needing other people’s help. I understand where people come from when they think that, even though that’s not true. Everyone should be proud to admit that they need help. It shows that no one can do it alone and that we all need each other. I don’t want to sound like I’m all perfect or anything, because I struggle with admitting I need help, too. Something that everyone could probably work on is letting other people help them.

I want to take a moment really quick to talk about the prompt quote that I put at the beginning of this essay. This quote really rings true to me. I agree with everything that it says. I really like the part where it says “we need to be mature, and unselfish enough to recognize our interdependence.” People think that it makes them seem immature when they’re dependent others, but it’s actually the opposite. I think it’s immature when people don’t rely on others for some things.

A different part in the quote says “total independence of others is neither attainable nor desirable” I never thought about this before, but it really is true. Let’s go back to the toothbrush example I used earlier. It may be true that you don’t need help with the actual brushing of your teeth, but what about the toothpaste? Other people make the toothpaste for you. (aka you depend on other people to make it so that you can use it.) What about the toothbrush? You also depend on someone other than yourself to make and package that for you. As you see in this example, it is not possible for anyone to ever be truly and fully independent.

Before I end this essay, I will summarize what you just read. In my opinion, people put way too much emphases on being independent, and not enough on realizing that it’s actually a good thing to depend on others for certain things and to a certain extent. We also need to get better at admitting when we need help and letting others help us. I also said that it is not physically possible to be completely independent. Something I didn’t say was that there are some people that are too dependent on other’s , but that’s for a different essay.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed getting to know my point of view on this topic. Have a good day!