Why try to fit in, when you were born to stand out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ve all heard it. Thing is though, that while we were all born unique and generally most of us are given the room for a few years to be ourselves, the messaging in the socialisation in our home, school, work place and mass media — has been — toe the line or else.
Here is how Wikipedia defines conformity – “… the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours to group norms.[1] Norms are implicit, specific rules, shared by a group of individuals, that guide their interactions with others.”
In short, conformity by the majority is necessary for societal order. Yet the flip side to that is, these rules, norms, attitude and beliefs change, they evolve — so in fact, conformity becomes a moving target. And thankfully so.
And frankly, where would we all be, if there wasn’t those among us, some of those who would stick their tongue out or flip the birdie at the prevailing rules? Where would innovation be in every sector of industry? Where would we all be if some of us didn’t ask different questions or simply asked why or why not? Where would we all be, if we all lived life, the way people expect us to. Ugh.
We wouldn’t have the hiphop culture of wearing bespoke suits with sneakers, we would not have had Steve Jobs and his inventions and come on, Bob Marley and RuPaul has made our lives a bit brighter and more evolved.
That’s why I am committed nonconformist, I mean, I’ve been asking why since I was age 5, so why stop now. And over the years I’ve found, original thinking, being and doing is sexyAF!