We are born to
conform.
Conformity is
the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms. Norms are
implicit, specific rules, shared by a group of individuals that guide their
interactions with others. This tendency to conform occurs in small groups
and/or society as a whole, and may result from subtle unconscious influences,
or direct and overt social pressure. Conformity can occur in the presence of
others, or when an individual is alone.
People often
conform from a desire for security within a group; typically a group of a similar
age, culture, religion, or educational status. This is often referred to as
groupthink: a pattern of thought characterized by self-deception, forced
manufacture of consent, and conformity to group values and ethics, which ignores
realistic appraisal of other courses of action. Unwillingness to conform
carries the risk of social rejection.
Although peer
pressure may manifest negatively, conformity can be regarded as either good or
bad. Driving on the correct side of the road could be seen as beneficial
conformity. With the right environmental influence, conforming, in early
childhood years, allows one to learn and thus, adopt the appropriate behaviors
necessary to interact and develop correctly within one’s society.
Conformity influences formation and maintenance of social norms, and helps
societies function smoothly and predictably via the self-elimination of
behaviors seen as contrary to unwritten rules. In this sense it can be
perceived as a positive force that prevents acts that are perceptually
disruptive or dangerous.
As conformity
is a group phenomenon, factors such as group size, unanimity, cohesion, status,
prior commitment and public opinion help determine the level of conformity an
individual displays.
I live in a rather
conservative town. I was brought up in the middle-class neighborhood and was
taught to follow the rules. My schooling taught me how to be orderly in class,
stand to pledge allegiance without taking the oath, pray before eating, stand
in line arranged by the alphabet, speak only when spoken to, wear pajamas, wear
the same clothing as everyone else, go to church on Sunday and be taught faith
and conform. The same lessons my brother learned were passed down to me like
cloning education.
Those who did
not follow the pattern were ostracized and called names and disciplined. They
became the rebels, the free spirits, the poets and the beatniks who would later
be idolized by the conformist as false prophets. Those would not conform were
shunned and labeled as misfits.
The other side
of breaking out of the mold is the ‘freedom of thought’.
Idealist, creative’s, visionaries and those who think out-of-the-box of
conformity enlighten the fringes.
Was Jesus a
conformist? Are his followers? What would we listen to if music were all the
same? What about artwork? Every museum would look like every other museum.
Every play and television show and dance is the same because someone had not
come up with something different. How dull would that be?
Your green
hair will wash out and turn grey but the tattoos will be with your for life.
Symbols of non-conformity will come and go, like the fashion of the absurd, but
the value of thinking, contemplating, imaging is far beyond daydreams.
Be an
original. Sign your name to it. Be one-of-a-kind and then go back to watching
the media wasteland of copy and repeat.
And listen to
your children. They haven’t been taught not to think...yet.
