Conformity
Last night, my eldest daughter was leafing through a real estate magazine. "Are there houses that look the same outside but are different inside?" she asked.
"Probably," I said.
"Imagine if all houses looked the same on the outside?" she continued. "Wouldn't that be creepy?"
I thought it was interesting that this made her feel squeamish... the thought of complete conformity.
And, then I remembered the discussion here yesterday about efficiency. It often relies on conformity— a much-hailed improvement on the "parts" side that made the Industrial Revolution quite successful. (Thanks, Ted G., for reminding me about the IR.)
Yet, conformity is also "creepy" in its way. Why is that?
Blue Noise photo by Sonia.
LINK to this post:
"Don't Conform to Platitudes Against Conformity"
posted by L.L. Barkat at 8:33 AM
18 Comments:
Well, because just look around! :)
It's obvious that the Lord created differences...in everything.
It goes against our very core being, that's why it makes us squeamish.
Paradoxically, though,in some ways we *want* to confirm--to feel loved or accepted.
Here's the funny thing to me: nonconformity is held up by our culture to be a high standard. It's popular to nonconform, man! But our nonconformity most often looks exactly like the nonconformity of the person next to me. The same nosering, the same tattoo, the same books, the same music, the same clothes. Nothing wrong with any of these things, but it does make me wonder, what does nonconformity really look like? I don't like the answer that comes to me, because I think it looks something like my Savior hanging on a cross.
Conformity negates individuality. But individuality becomes conformity when there is a lack of imagination and all those non-conformists non-conform in the same way!
Your observations are so true. I went to an international school in India that didn't have a uniform, because they wanted to encourage the differences the students brought from their varied backgrounds. But everyone dressed the same. . . jeans and t-shirt/sweatshirt. That was our "uniform" despite there being no official uniform. And we couldn't be pried away from it!
Well, you are unique and special... just like everyone else.
Andrea... yes, the beauty of the world is in its great abundance! But, we are working on changing that-- between species loss and mono-cropping, it's an interesting trend towards conformity.
Heather... it's an intersting question to consider... in what ways did Jesus conform, and in what ways break out from the norm? Obviously, the ways he chose to break out from the norm were a little bothersome to a few people.
Ex-S... Confirmed. I mean, conformed. I mean... could you please tell me what I mean?
Ini... too funny. And, what do our conformity choices really say about us? Who we want to be?
Craver... tee hee. :)
I always find depictions of future utopias very interesting -- everyone dressed the same, talking the same language, living in the same egg-shaped houses. I find equally fascinating the totally devastated depictions of future dystopias. All that conformity destroyed into a heap of brownness. What does this say about our sense of improvement and advancement? Conformity can only take us so far until we self-destruct?
On a completely different note, I totally agree with Andrea that at times we often want to conform, i.e. junior high, for me.
Your daughter is so on track. We are all born with different gifts and if we are unable to express those gifts in our own homes something is definitely off track, best wishes, The Artist
Great post, L.L. Most of these comments seem to be leery of conformity, but as an editor my job is to help people conform to our standards.
Does that make me an enemy of creativity?
; )
Hello L.L, you have some pretty intelligent people leaving comments here, I wish I could express myself as well as them.
I hope you are well and busy.
Kind Regards
Martin
Our neighborhood has conformed. Is that a sentence???
L.L., I thought I probably made a comment on this yesterday, but guess I got sidetracked. Haha. Yeah. About the industrial revolution. Your welcome.
Sonia's photo is a nice one for thinking about conformity. This certainly seems to deny our uniqueness as wonderful creations and also new creations from God. And we can put all of that together (actually God will)! Breathtaking in the end, I'm sure. (Good enough now, actually, even in our smaller scale experiences of it)
LL (Cool J),
I really want to say something insightful that makes me acceptable to this stellar group of commentors. Would that be trying to conform?
Guess so.
Therefore...
Check out the new link to this post, at the bottom of my original post... Mark, you're always one step ahead of me!
Thanks for the link, L.L.! And the complement that I don't deserve.
L.L.
Good question. I do think that mindless conformity, in particular, has a way of causing us to coast and keep our lives in neutral. Others take the inititive and we mindlessly go along. Maybe it is the mindlessness of it all that alarms me even more than conformity in and of itself.
LL
I wanted to conform the consensus non-conformist opinion but I actually think that the beauty of God glory is seen in both conformity and non-conformity.
For example -
The wonder of seeing a beautiful snow fall...beautiful because it's all white and feathery...yet each flake uniquely different.
Isn't God great?
Andre
Well, you must never bring her to southern California - you'll give her nightmares of conformity. :-) Entire hillsides of houses, all exactly the same color, identical.
But at least we have the ocean, which is ever-changing.
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