Duality
The most ancient social duality is the tendency of humans to split into one of two groups:
The Conformists: who, out of fear of humiliation, band together in like-minded packs; dressing, talking, and thinking in the acceptable way of the majority.
or
The Anti-Conformist Conformists: who, out of fear of humiliation, band together in like-minded packs; dressing, talking, and thinking in the acceptable way of the minority.
Each group sees themselves as distinctly unique from the other in every way, trying as hard as they can to accent their strengths and insult the other’s perceived weaknesses; but in truth, both are essentially the same.
Fear of Rejection
Humans, by nature have an irrational fear of rejection; the most powerful social force we know. Consider that fear of public speaking often ranks higher than fear of death in studies of human motivators. If those studies are correct, most people would rather die than risk being rejected by a large group of their peers.
As a result of this fear, humans look to their political, social, and religious leaders for guidance on how to act, look, talk, dress, and behave so that they might safely blend in. We learn from our early programming a list of what is acceptable and what isn’t. We learn to give a hard time to anyone who doesn’t fit the mold.
Relativism
About the time I entered the stage of relativism in my intellectual and ethical development, I started to question conformity. Why should I just blindly do what everyone else is doing? Just because they’re doing it doesn’t make it right. Why don’t more people think for themselves?
I was going through the same process as most students do when they enter college. Experiencing separation from my family and being exposed to many conflicting, yet valid, points of view opened my mind considerably.
Parents
As a kid, you tend not to question what your parents tell you. You might resent them for it, but deep down, you know that they are “right.” When you leave the house and begin making your own decisions, you realize that there’s a world of possibilities out there.
If you go to college, or are an avid reader, you begin to realize that people with seemingly opposing view points can both be “right.” The concept of right and wrong becomes relative to the eye of the beholder.
To some people in this stage of development, conformity becomes absurd. Why should they do what others think is “right” when there may not even be a “right” and “wrong” to begin with? (Hence their entrance into the anti-conformist movement.)
How Not to Look
Anti-conformists look to political, social, and religious leaders for guidance on how not to act, look, talk, dress, and behave so that they might safely stand out. Their list of what’s acceptable and what’s not is often simply the mirror opposite of the conformists list.
To show to the world that they are rejecting the norm, they don the uniform of the anti-conformist. Depending on the band, it might be a color of clothing, a hairstyle, a body accessory, or a way of life. While considerably different than the conformists, the anti-conformists begin to look surprisingly alike.
You Become What You Hate
In their haste not to conform, they made the same mistake of their adversaries: letting someone else control how they think. Instead of blindly following someone, they blindly rejected them. By hating the idea of dogmatism, they became dogmatic in their approach.
Just because everyone else is doing something doesn’t necessarily make it right, but it also doesn’t make it wrong. Automatically rejecting the majority is no wiser than automatically accepting it.
Both conformists and anti-conformists are guilty of not thinking critically.
Music
My first introduction to this concept was in my teens as I was developing my taste for music. I found it fascinating to observe the music tastes of other people and analyze how they came to their conclusions.
Depending on where you live, there’s usually a majority opinion on what is considered good music. Popular music (or “pop”) is typically safe, repetitive, and easily memorable; while underground music is typically edgy, harsh, or “different.”
By definition, pop music fans represent the conformists. They like the same type of music as the majority; but do they like it because it’s popular or because it’s good music?
I’ve always found it interesting when I meet people that claim to “hate” pop music. I once worked at a restaurant with this girl who practically gagged herself every time a Counting Crows song played over the house speakers. She always made a big production about how much they sucked and how over-played they were.
I happen to like The Counting Crows, but that’s not the reason I took exception to her reasoning. I’d respect a well thought-out argument about how she didn’t like their playing style or the lead singer’s voice.
It would make more sense to me if she said that she didn’t like the majority of their songs, but one or two were tolerable. That would provide some evidence that she had given them a chance and made a legitimate evaluation.
It’s the fact that she hated the band just because they were popular that puzzled me. The Counting Crows could have replaced their lead singer and changed to her favorite style and she still would have rejected all their music.
In my lifetime, I’ve run across countless people who dogmatically reject all things pop. It’s as if they think that the only way to be smart or cultured is to like the exact opposite of everyone else.
I’m not saying that I’m a huge pop fan. In fact, I have very little pop music in my iTunes library; but I’m not afraid to like a song just because it gets played.
Movies
I’ve noticed a movement in the last ten years towards anti-conformist conformity in Hollywood. The film business has always been home to counter-culture types, but lately it seems to be all the rage.
Ratings for The Oscars have been slipping over the same time period, partially because the average American has never even heard of the movies that are getting nominated. This tells me that the taste of the majority and the taste of the Academy voters are slowly diverging.
Along the same line of thinking as those who would reject pop music, it seems as if a growing minority tend to love movies that no one else likes. This holds especially true if the movie doesn’t make any sense. It’s as if they attach themselves to movies that no one else understands so they can claim to be of higher mental capacity.
“If you have to ask, you’ll never know.”
If a movie has an edgy component that will offend the masses: all the better; even if it’s exposition is unnecessary to the story line. This sort of dogmatic rejection of mainstream is just as ridiculous as dogmatic conformity.
Being a member of the independent film community myself, I’m all for low-budget, artsy films… as long as they’re good. I just don’t think that we should be limiting our palate based on a film’s popularity.
Critical Thinking
I’d like to see a move towards critical thinking, where each individual studies the possibilities, evaluates all sides, and makes a decision based on strong reasoning. Music and Movies are relatively inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, but they represent how people tend to think on larger issues as well.
Instead of automatically going along with everyone else or automatically rejecting everyone else, it would be nice if each person would make their own decision with all available information.
If everyone used this type of thinking, we’d still have a wide diversity of opinions, we would just be more respectful of those that don’t agree with us.
(Featured Photo by Hartwig HKD)
im neither. i get messed with all the tm ecause i dont fit in. and i dont want to make some1 else look dumb just to make myself look better either. i just do my own thing and get hated on for it.
follow the pack or ur an outsider. and they will try to get rid of u, try to get inside ur head and distort reality. but the truth is theyre just following some1 elses concept of life based on there own insecurities. pathetic.
its like people i work with, either follow the pack or ur an outsider. and they will fuck with u. but it doesnt make sense to me to do that. but its just the way it is. they r all followers.
oddly enough, im neither conformist nor anti-conformist conformist. As pointed out in this interesting post, that both are groups, n the people in the conformist groups are similar to each other, n the anti-conformist conformist groups are similar to each other. i neither purposely dislike conformists, nor do i completely agree with everything they do, but some of which cannot be labeled in such a way as to state a mere action to be conformist or not. only in that do i ever find myself agreeing with people of a mind set of conformity. At my school left n right r north face shells (might i add that i had one three years ago n they thought it was stupid), vans, n girls with over done make up and over straightened hair, n boys who think they’re the shit if they r rude. over all the conformist mold of my suburb town. Now the anti-conformist conformists hate all the conformists simply for being so n that alone. N then there is me. i have straight across bangs that come down sideways but still cover my whole forehead with naturally straight hair that flips in at the ends that wont do anything else (only one at my school like that) i wear everything from dresses n skirts in a 40s n 50s kinda style to my black concert tees and jeans (only one at my school who does that) one day i will be listening to Ke$ha and Bruno Mars and Katy Perry the next im blasting Rancid, mgmt n the Ramones and matt & kim through the neighborhood. (only one at my school that likes all kinds of music even country, classical, n jazz!) as well i dnt have a group of friends that hangs with me. (defiantly only one like that) i have friends dnt get me wrong, but im not with them every second n my friends arnt all friends with each other, some of um dnt even know each other.
so all in all i guess im a lone ranger.
Actually, I’ve pondered and reflected on this issue many times before, and thought of some conclusions:
– Maybe some people are just lazy to think/feel that the issue is not important enough to warrant the usage of too many brain cells
– Insufficient knowledge about the issue (which may stem from their lack of effort in finding out more information, which may be because of the previous point – they do not think that the issue is important enough for them to spend too much braincells/time on it)
Another guess is that there are different types of people. Some people are more of the ‘feeling’ kind than the ‘thinking’ kind, so they’ll rather fit in and get along with other people rather than evaluate situations and analyze things thoroughly. They prefer to be more laid-back, and just go with the flow instead of questioning things in life, because they feel better being more relaxed and just taking things as they come.
Personally, I belong more to the ‘critical thinking’ category, and I used to have some inner issues with people whom I think are too conformist and ‘mainstream’. However, after some time, I’ve come to realise that they’re just different from me, and have different priorities, but that doesn’t mean anyone is better than the other. It just means that they may be better in things that I’m not, like being more sociable and adaptable, while I may be better in things that they are not, like analyzing and critical thinking. These differences kinda help balance up the world. So I think it won’t help anyone at all if people judge and take sides. Everyone is just different!
That’s a well thought-out take!
I’m firmly in the ‘critical thinking’ category.
I guess I dont conform to anything- I accept it, if is acceptable to me, and discard it if not. Dunno about critical thinking, to me this is just being an ‘individualist’, and not a sheep!
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Thanks for the thought provoking post. It reminded me of the Monty Python movie ‘Life of Brian’: Brian is addressing a crowd from a high-up perch and says: “You don’t need to follow me, You don’t need to follow anybody! You’ve got to think for your selves! You’re all individuals!”
“Yes! We’re all individuals!” replies the crowd
“You’re all different!”
“Yes, we ARE all different!”
Then some bloke in the crowd says, “I’m not…”
Is this guy an anti-anti-conformist?
Gus
??? 🙂
“The Conformists: who, out of fear of humiliation, band together in like-minded packs; dressing, talking, and thinking in the acceptable way of the majority.
or
The Anti-Conformist Conformists: who, out of fear of humiliation, band together in like-minded packs; dressing, talking, and thinking in the acceptable way of the minority.”
[…] little cricket wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAlong the same line of thinking as those who would reject pop music, it seems as if a growing minority tend to love movies that no one else likes. This holds especially true if the movie doesn’t make any sense. … […]
The oxymoronness of the title made me laugh. 🙂 But I’d still say I’m a sort of anti-conformist conformist though. I’m a random kind of person I like to be different from other people on purpose. I still try to be similar to the other people who are different too though…
I think I am in the anti-conformist conformist, although i still like to appear as a conformist some times…
You raise an interesting point. I would argue the reason many people choose conformity or conformity through non-conformity is because of two driving forces:
1) Acceptance, as you outline.
2) Short-cuts and thought-avoidance.
– Acceptance –
The conformist strategy arguably really works well if your main goal is to be part of a group and paradoxically unique (your “own” personality.) On a sub-conscious level, the desire to seek pleasure through developing one’s taste may be overridden by the desire to express affinity or identity by affiliating yourself with what you expect others will (dis)like.
This is somewhat related to the Keynesian beauty contest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_beauty_contest
If you can win a prize by voting for the most popular entrant in a beauty contest, how would you choose? Would you pick who you felt was the most attractive, or would you pick who you felt others would think was the most attractive ; or would you pick who you expected others to think others would think … and so on. Fairly complicated business!
So in short summary, I would argue that non-critical thinkers have successfully adopted a strategy that suits them for their need. I would also argue that they may not be aware of this strategy or the need it satisfies (and would probably disagree strongly.) You could even argue I myself pursue the very same, by proclaiming to be a critical thinker.
– Short-cuts and Thought-avoidance –
People don’t like to think, they don’t like to do work, and they definitely don’t like putting in effort.
Much like how marketing and branding works really well for companies trying to sell products, by building up positive associations and reflexes, the same can probably be found for multi-media type products if we look for it.
Some introspection reveals that I suffer the same thing when I look forward to the European iPhone introduction or Razr2 – I shouldn’t fool myself into thinking these preferences are based on rational thought.
Very interesting post, keep it up. I’d be interested to read what others think of this topic
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