Is Conformity Within Society a Good Thing?
When it comes to conformity, groups, tribes, or even nations, have always needed to find some areas where they could agree to “conform” to the same attitudes and actions. This enables the groups to function with a measure of coherence. But there should always be areas of society and life where people can safely be individuals. Unfortunately, over the past few centuries, this independence of the individual has slowly disappeared. At one time, in Britain, there were people who were classed as “eccentrics” precisely because they didn’t conform to the rest of the group or society in the usual way. Yet, these eccentrics did conform enough for society to cope with their differences. Some people would have called it social tolerance, today, this is what is hoped to be achieved by political correctness. Unfortunately, this modern version doesn’t work as well as the ancient method. Eccentrics were important for others to recognise where conformity stopped and changed to become non-conformity or
