Tag: conformity

Be Unapologetically Yourself And Don’t Always Conform To Societal Norms.

Some societal norms are of necessity to conform too. As to not harm other individuals with your actions. Don’t kill cheat or steal these are things we can agree to conform too to protect our fellow man. But in other areas of life we need not always conform.

Your Choice Is Who You Chose To Be.

As the great poet Ben Harper would say, your choice is who you choose to be and if you’re causing no harm than your alright with me. My choice is what I choose to do and if I’m causing no harm it shouldn’t bother you. Yet everywhere we look we are guided into conformity and it starts and a very early age.

Social norms dictate that you act as others do as to not disrupt the delicate balance of those interactions. What we wear, how we look, what we say all require a sense of uniformity. It takes a keen eye to understand you are playing a role and to break free from that role you need to go against the grain.

The strange thing is, and it’s something you have to pay very close attention to is this. Even when you think you might be bucking the trend, you may just be conforming to someone else’s rules.

The Conform of Nonconformity

I recently read of an artist who thought they were living the life of an artist not conforming to societal norms. Getting face and neck tattoos so he could be unhireable.

Sometime we just have to play by our own set of rules and this individual thought he was doing that. He moved into an “artist” warehouse where many other artist and misfits made their home. Yet in his attempt to check out of “normal” society he still had to pay rent, eat and buy supplies for his art. This required income.

36 People Perished In The Fire.

Eventually the manager of the warehouse allowed him to live rent free if he cleaned the bathrooms, collected the rent checks and occasionally put on events, basically he was working a job conforming to the rules the manager of the property set for him. Eventually this nonconformist put on a concert at this illegal warehouse living space and due to all the faulty wiring of the building it caught fire and 36 people died.

He was eventually blamed for these death and is now is forced to conform to a new life behind bars. He did not kill those people but the fact that he did the bidding of other individuals made him some how an accomplice. Don’t simply be the accomplice in others work, plans, goals or dreams. Or in this case a nightmare. This individual conformed through anti-conformity. It’s seems like these things can’t exist together but surely they do. And now this individual has to conform to the penitentiary system.

Be Yourself.

Walk to the beat of your own drum, conform where is absolutely necessary but go against the grain when it feels like the right move. Or if something doesn’t feel right, don’t simply conform to it because that’s what someone who might seem to have authority says to do. Question it and jump ship when it’s the wrong move.



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