Conformity

Anti-Conformity

Why do individuals feel the need to conform? We are individuals after all, right? That’s what we would like to believe anyway. The truth is that we all follow basic social norms, and when we don’t, the consequence tends to be alienation.

People tend to think that if they dress a certain way, then they no longer conform to the society’s trends. It may have been a sign of anti-conformity when the idea was first shown to society, but now it is simply another trend, and another way to conform. A basic social norm that we follow is wearing clothes. Changing the way that you dress seems more like modifying the norm. If you really wanted to make a statement, then you would probably go without clothes. Although, then you would join a nudist colony, and that’s just conforming with nudists, so you’re still conforming.

That statement may make it seem like you can’t escape conformity. That is untrue. When an idea is first brought to society’s attention, and judged by society, then the idea can be considered as unique. If someone chooses to put that idea to use, regardless of what others think, then it can be considered anti-conformity. Once society starts to recognize the idea as a trend, then it simply becomes part of society’s norms. Again, I don’t mean to say that trying to go against conformity is impossible, because this is what brings social change, and broadens the mind of society.

I’ve never quite understood why people have conformed to the knowledge of trusting doctors, police officers and teachers without question. It’s probably very likely that the doctor doing your brain surgery could be hungover. He’s just a regular person. I’m sure I’ve seen people hungover at the place where I work, and therefore it isn’t any different for a doctor to do the same. For some reason, we set them to a higher standard and figure they are better humans than regular people. The police officer coming to your assistance because there was a robbery at your house very well could be a robber himself. The teacher seeing your kids for a longer period of time in the day than you do very well could be a pedophile. So why we trust them without thinking, then tell our kids not to talk to strangers?