The Dangers Of Conformity

Conformity: The difficulty to mantain your own beliefs amongst others.

“Humanity’s most valuable assets have been the non-conformists. Were it not for the non-conformists, he who refuses to be satisfied to go along with the continuance of things as they are, and insists upon attempting to find new ways of bettering things, the world would have known little progress, indeed.” – John Kenneth Galbraith

How many times a day before doing something or taking a decision, you take the time to think about it. And when I say "think about it" I really mean it. I mean thinking about yourself, what you believe is right and wrong. Now, how many times do you skip that step because everybody else is doing the same, so you decide to avoid the "thinking" part and follow the crowd just like sheep.
I once read: "Do not follow the crowd. You might get lost in it"
What is the point of taking that road if you aren´t confortable in it? The number of people that do something does certainly not contribute to making their decision right. When C. Colombus believed that the world was round everybody acused him as wrong. Everybody believed he was wrong, and who turned out to be right? The individual who went against the stream.

We are not sheep. We were given minds to differenciate what is right from what is wrong. We were given vocal chords, a mouth, and the power to speak so as to use it, not repeating what others said, but what you want to say. Make those parts of our body worth it and use them as you are supposed to.
Frost once said " Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the less traveled by, and it has made all the difference."

I am not asking you to kill somebody, that is a good type of conformity. I am encouraging you to think for yourselves, you are not just an individual in the world. Make yourself remembered. Lets not live in a world where we claim not being equal, when all of us follow the same shepherd. Lets be our own shepherds, but whilst teaching others what thinking for yourself really is.

“As the wise test gold by burning, cutting and rubbing it, So, students, should you accept my words – after testing them, and not merely out of respect.” – the Buddha


By: Lucia Miri Echavarria