Authors have written numerous novels about fighting it, people have fought endlessly to suppress it on a government level, but they fail to fight the social conformity. We fail to realize that dressing similarly, thinking the same way, and generally following the crowd because we don't want to "rock the boat" mean that we're only promoting such a harmful way of life. Why is conformity so harmful? What's so wrong about the masses being united for the same cause? What's so wrong with everyone fitting the same mold? What's so wrong with thinking and looking and speaking the same? Everything. It doesn't allow individuality to progress, it doesn't allow new ideas in the system, it doesn't allow progress.
In Ayn Rand's novel, The Fountainhead (which I sorrowfully admit I have never finished,) conformity destroys the progress of architecture. In A Brave New World, conformity destroyed morality. In The Giver, conformity destroyed emotions. You get the point? Conformity destroys all things we hold sacred as humans. With conformity, we descend down to the ranks of mere animals, following the paths of those before us without a questioning glance back.
One of the things I love about being of the LDS faith is the emphasis on individuality, on how we were each different in the pre-mortal life and we each have a different path. Back home, this was very true. In Young Women's, there was a profound emphasis on individuality. Here at BYU, the story is different. Listening to different conversations, I hear individuals criticized because they're 20 and at home, they've got tattoos, or they aren't baby hungry. Students are looked down on for doing homework on Sundays, drinking Dr. Pepper or Coke, for not having the same exact standards as every single other individual. The Church emphasizes that things like the Word of Wisdom and other doctrine are for the individual, how each one interprets it is different. I may decide to drink Dr. Pepper and someone else might not. Many students here expect others to conform; if they don't, there's something wrong with them. If they decide to go on a mission around the same time their boyfriend leaves, it must be because she just wants to be safe with the waiting, not because she's received revelation about it. If a boy doesn't go on his mission, it's because he's sinned, not because he has health related problems. Harsh judgement often follows social conformity, because differences are seen as wrongs, instead of differences.
Social conformity is extremely common, not just up at BYU, as many would believe. Social conformity is in anything that involves other individuals. I remember being attacked at TFA State in debate because I decided to debate traditionally, rather than progressively. Debaters are berated if they decide disclosure is bad, and attacked if they try to go to the different side. Our verbal Hunger Games of belittling and berating has evolved into something so awful that individuals will break up their personality, their individuality to fit the mold and not be attacked. This needs to be remedied.
I don't have all the answers or even most of them. All I know is that conformity is the most destructive of all the social ills, as it requires individuals to forget who they are down beneath the cut out, requiring different opinions to be shut down as soon as they are brought up, and society to stagnate. Fixing it will be a challenge, but we can all start by practicing tolerance. Tolerance of other beliefs, standards, and ideas is essential for anything to be done about the harmful weed that is conformity.
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