Don’t Be a Conformist

Living a human life entails membership in a variety of human groups.

This typically includes groups such as nation, culture, profession, religion,
family, and peer group. We find ourselves participating in groups before we
are aware of ourselves as living beings. We find ourselves in groups in virtually
every setting in which we function as persons. What is more, every group to
which we belong has some social definition of itself and unspoken “rules” that
guide the behavior of all members. Each group to which we belong imposes
some level of conformity on us as a condition of acceptance. This includes a
set of beliefs, behaviors, requirements, and taboos.
All of us, to varying degrees, accept as right and correct whatever ways
of acting and believing are fostered in the social groups to which we belong.
Typically, this acceptance is uncritical.
Group membership clearly offers some advantages. But those advantages
come with a price. Many people behave unethically because it is expected
of them. Groups impose their rules (conventions, folkways, taboos) on
individuals. Group membership is in various ways “required” for ordinary
acts of living. Suppose, for example, that you wanted to legally belong to
no nation, to be a citizen not of a country but of the world. You would not
be allowed that freedom. You would find that you were allowed no place
to live, nor any way to travel from place to place. Every place in the world
is claimed by some nation (as its “sovereign” possession), and every nation
requires that all visitors to it come as citizens of some other country (thus,
with a “passport”). In addition, everywhere a nation imposes its “sovereignty,”
it requires the obedience of all persons to literally thousands (if not hundreds
of thousands) of laws.
For most people, blind conformity to group restrictions is automatic
and unreflective. Most people effortlessly conform without recognizing their
conformity. They internalize group norms and beliefs, take on the group
identity, and act as they are expected to act—without the least sense that
what they are doing might reasonably be questioned. Most people function
in social groups as unreflective participants in a range of beliefs, attitudes, and
behaviors analogous to those of urban street gangs.

And conformity is one of the evils of human society. Why? Because

through conformity, arbitrary social rules are treated as if they were inherently
good and right. Arbitrary social rules lead to any number of unjust practices.
Consider the ways in which people who do not abide by social conventions
are marginalized within a culture. For example, consider the groups who tend
to be marginalized in the U.S.—atheists, people who protest wars, people
who speak out against unethical government practices when the mainstream
is not speaking out. Furthermore, consider how arbitrary social conventions
often lead to arbitrary laws, the enforcement of which often results in human
suffering (for example, unjust prison sentences).
When you have developed as a skilled, independent thinker, you do
not mindlessly follow the crowd. You think for yourself. You figure out for
yourself what makes sense to believe and what to reject. You recognize social
rules and taboos for what they often are: subjective creations of an unthinking
mass.
Of course, it is often quite difficult to critically analyze the cultural
conventions existing within one’s own culture. These conventions are
systematically indoctrinated into our thinking throughout a lifetime. As
the reigning beliefs, they surround us. Overcoming indoctrination requires
committed effort, insight, and courage.

Strategies for becoming an independent thinker:

1. Write down your answers to these questions: What are some of the
taboos in my culture? What behaviors are considered shocking or
disgusting? What beliefs are treated as sacred? What penalties exist
for people who do not abide by social rules, even though their
behavior doesn’t hurt anyone (and even though these rules come
and go over the years)?
2. Notice how cultural taboos and rules are fostered within the
culture. Note, for example, how often messages about “good” and
“bad” behavior are the focus of TV programs and movies. Consider,
for example, the number of TV programs focused on the police
“catching” people in possession of illegal drugs, on the “good
guys” catching the “bad guys” and locking them up. Do you fi nd
yourself cheering on the “good guys” and hoping the “bad guys get
what’s coming to them?” If so, why? In the real world, more harm
and suff ering are often caused by the offi cial “good guys” than the
offi cial “bad guys.” See if you can identify some examples.

3. Examine the extent to which you uncritically accept the taboos

and requirements of your culture and social groups. Monitor your
conformity. Begin a list of ways in which you can begin to think
independently.
4. Make a list of problems that people experience as a result of mass
conformity to arbitrary social rules. How do you contribute to
those problems?
5. Read W.G. Sumner’s book Folkways,5 in which he describes a
broad range of societies and behaviors within varying time periods.
Imagine yourself living within those various cultures. What beliefs
would you hold dear? How would you behave? How would your
beliefs and behaviors diff er from your current beliefs and behaviors?
6. Notice the extent to which your friends and family members
conform to whatever social ideology is reigning at the moment.
Notice the extent to which you are stifled by the groups to which
you belong (those groups you choose to belong to, and those you
belong to because you have no choice). Realize that independent
thinkers often prefer to be alone, rather than attempt to fit into
groups that irrationally and mindlessly conform to arbitrary social
rules. Recognize that there is one free community you can always
join—the community of independent thinkers found in the best
books that have ever been written. Independent thinkers can always
find a range of great thinkers waiting for them at the library.