Our life is lived by a set of rules decided by the society and those rules are imposed on us by our parents and schools until we become matured enough to understand that we are being forced to live a life which is not ours. We are expected to conform to the society to be an acceptable member of that society. This is like living a duel life even without understanding we are living a duel life. We become so used to this that our non conformist self is forced to think that being a non conformist is a social crime.
It is the easiest to be a conformist and be one of the herds than stand out. It gives a sense of security and a sense of anonymity among the society away from its glare. Except a few, most of us fall under this category. We are meant to listen to what others think about us and behave accordingly, we are meant to do what most of the others are doing. We are meant to feel what most of the others are feeling.
A conformist life revolves around a set parameter. We are supposed to take in face value what others tell us. We are not supposed to accept authority without questioning. We are supposed to go to college because all others of my age group are going. We are supposed to work long hours in our desk to call ourselves doing something productive. We are supposed to think about starting a business but never do it. We are supposed to go on some foreign trips but only to the popular ones. We are supposed to avoid drawing attention to ourselves. We are supposed to take a loan and pay off the debt for the next 20 years. We are supposed to take shortcuts in life. That is a lot of supposed to- and there can be many more.
Actually we dread to be a non conformist and do something different because then we will be in the minority and alone with others being judgmental about us. Our mind is programmed in such a way that we tend to find protection among the masses rather than standing out. Though in our lives we oscillate between being a conformist and a non conformist but we seldom have the courage to go against the flow. So live a life of duel personality and live a life which is below our potential. In school when teacher ask who wants to be a great leader or a great writer, the students will mostly look at each other. But if the teacher asks who among the class can be a great leader or a great writer the students will very easily take some one else’s name. This is because we are not taught to develop a confidence that we can be someone great. We grow up thinking ourselves incapable or I can’t achieve any greatness. Confidence comes from being better and not just thinking we are better. Likewise we think we are great without being great.
So we spend our whole life just to adjust ourselves to the rules set by others and forgetting what our inner voice is telling us. We are so much bothered about thinking what others will think about me if I do or not do a thing that we start killing our inner self. We stop questioning both the society and ourselves. And I must tell you the government likes these types of people as they are the least problem creator for them. They know that whatever they do and however they justify it, the people will accept it in face value. It is the minority few who the government has to tackle and therefore it becomes quite easy for a democratically elected government to start behaving in a fascist way.
Thank you Telesfor sir.