Friday, August 7, 2009

Norms, Conformity, non Conformity

"To think that one has gone too far -- that means one has already accepted society's norms. It is already a form of self-censorship."
-(Oliviero Toscani, designer of Benetton commercials)
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my interpretation


once or twice in a day, you would hear a tiny little voice in your head telling you what you are doing does not feels right. i believe most of you would have encounter this.
so where does that voice comes from?
you can say that it is your conscience speaking. but don't you think most often than not, our thoughts are highly influenced by what we perceive as norms?
we act like what the society expects us to be.
we walk like how we are supposed to be.
we talk like how we are supposed to be.
and when we come across someone who doesn't, we judge. we gossip. we stab them right at the face saying "you do not belong to us"
but have you ever thought of WHY we react that way? or so to say, why the society in general REACTED that greatly?
it is because the general mob of them feel that they are challenged.
or rather, they are jealous.
JEALOUS? you say?
yes. jealous. these people gossip about the people who dare to go against the norms because the non conformists are doing EXACTLY what the conformists do not dare to do.
conformists might think of going against the norms. but they never make a change and act in that sense.
non conformist on the other hand, act, walk, talk, the way they want without worrying a bit about the norms.

however, non conformist is very hard to come by.
once in a while, you would see a tinge of rebellion from the conformist.
yet peer pressure would tie them back down.
if only the rebellious conformist can hold on a little longer...
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when a non conformist becomes phenomenal, other conformists would start to move towards copying THE non conformist, so that they feel as if they are being rebellious towards the societal norms.
well, they are self-deceiving really.
even if you can imitate what THE non conformist do, you can never BE the non conformist.
and i'll tell you exactly wHY.
you never got deep and interested enough to grasp the essence of being a non conformist.

Go figure.
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