Good morning boys and girls – today’s story is about society and family, and a special word – Conformity (geez, I sound like Mr. Rogers there – “Can you say conformity? It’s a four syllable word…”). According to Simply Psychology (https://www.simplypsychology.org/conformity.html), conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group. This change is in response to real (involving the physical presence of others) or imagined (involving the pressure of social norms / expectations) group pressure.

Did you ever wonder (now I’m on to Andy Rooney) why teachers and corporations always harped on “thinking outside the box”, when, in the end, all they really wanted was for you to “conform” to the standards and rules that they’d created? Kind of a dichotomy if you ask me (dichotomy – now that’s an Andy Rooney word…).

Well, I grew up back in the day of the 60’s and 70’s, when conformity was the last thing that people were doing. “Do your own thing”, “Express yourself”, “Different strokes for different folks”, “Marching to the beat of a different drummer” – those were the common phrases of the day (along with Peace, Love and Get a Haircut-).

But that’s not the case anymore. Now all those free-thinking, liberal, parent’s nightmares have come to the same conclusion that their conservative parents had years before – that non-conformity takes too much effort to maintain and control. And believe me, controlling the population is the big thing. Back in the day of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, it was clean-cut, suits, church, a job, Sunday dinner and “manly” sports. Morality and honesty – because society “knew what was best for you”. Not just cast in stone, but also in a “lead by example” way. And even if your parents didn’t enforce it, the neighbors would.

But being put in a box has never been a strong suit of the human race, and just like that the non-conformists emerged en mass, challenging the paradigm and showing the world how “they” thought things should be. And the 60’s and 70’s were all about a free-thinking, liberal lifestyle. Living “outside the box”, so’s to speak. But then came the 80’s and 90’s, when these “free-thinkers” had offspring of their own.

And when that non-conformist, liberal lifestyle no longer suited them, they decided to make everyone conform, just as the previous generation had. But, since they’re mostly liberals, that meant writing and passing laws – thousands of them – to help keep those “poor, confused people” who didn’t know how to live “properly” on the straight and narrow. I mean, after all, they “know what’s best for you”, so why should you even have to waste your time thinking for yourself – just conform.

And so it’s come to this – you no longer need to be clean-cut, go to church, be honest or moral. As a matter of fact, honesty, morality and manners stick out like a sore thumb in today’s “me-too, me-first, me-me-me” world. And as long as you conform you’ll get along just fine. How do I know? Because I’m a non-conformist.

I’m that “odd-man out”, “wildcard”, “crazy uncle” – I am the fodder of family holiday dinner conversations and invented drama. Because people – family or society – have a hard time dealing with non-conformists. They have to pay attention, all the time, no social autopilot, because you can’t say for certain what a non-conformist will do next. And all that effort to “pay attention” well, that just pisses most people off, primarily because most people are lazy.

Plato, Einstein, all your great thinkers and movers have one thing in common – they all thought and lived “outside the box”. They were non-conformists. And while I wouldn’t begin to compare my achievements to theirs, I can admire and respect how they they lived their lives – it’s how I live mine.

The choice is yours – be a lemming of society and conform, or make the decision to live life “on the wild side”. Who knows, maybe you’re the next great thinker or mover – but you’ll never know until you step outside.