Creating Youth and American Identity, and Presentation of Self

Nick notes the quote: "In searching for the social values which guide identity, one therefore confronts the problems of ideology and aristocracy, both in their widest possible sense which connotes that within a defined world image..." While reading this I couldn't help but to think that a lot of the times individuals do not go "searching" for social values, but due to their ubiquitous nature social values are forced upon us. This poses me with similar questions that Mills urges us to contemplate: What interactions are independent of society, where does society mediate? If we become dependent on the social values that society does impose us with, then our lack of agency creates an opportunity for us to conform into our groups. For Mead, our Me increasingly starts to gain power than our I, we are forced to become the objects in our own society. Although I agree with Erikson of this creating a collective identity, I am sceptical, as this introduces a situation in which society is creating harm for an individual by trading their personal identity for the collective identity.