It takes commitment and courage to be yourself in the face of the coercion of conformity. Not looking like everyone else or at least looking the same with minor alterations is fearful for many. As I walk through the halls of academia or the corridors of business it is weird to see how uniform we have all become. When I encounter someone who is showing an individuality it is so rare as to be noticed. Where are all the characters? They can’t have all moved to San Francisco.
Have we become so obedient to orthodoxy that we have stopped expressing ourselves as ourselves? If we can our costumes are all the same how can we have our own values, ideas, actions? The bandwagon towards a homogeneous mass seems to roll along picking up willing riders. The parade gets started and people jump in the queue without really knowing where it is going. Once in the line, dissent becomes difficult or impossible. ( see what happens to people who challenge a speaking point at a Trump rally. or a Clinton rally, or any ideological institution).
Conformity has become madness with a pathology towards predictability and standardization. We hear a ” be a team player” but understand do like we are doing. The pressure is extreme. All the media outlets (especially TV) preach the right way to dance, sing, act, play, dress, by creating and recreating caricatures for us to emulate. Our friends lean with the mass and we feel alone. It takes commitment and courage to be yourself in the face of the coercion of conformity. Are you courageous enough to commit not to conform, just one time, today?
Make Today Remarkably Unconventional,
B
Make It Your Problem 