Conformity

 

Subject: Conformity

Is conformity a good thing or bad. When we conform we accept what has gone on in the past and at least in part acknowledge it's value by agreeing to repeat it. If we are non conformist is the reverse true, that only new ideas and modes of thinking are of value.

Of course it needn't be either and most people wouldn't be able to decipher their acceptance of the intricacies of past customs, when set against the open, anything goes system we have today.

To conform you have to acknowledge the values of the past,  not slavishly worship them but at least see the value in thinking in an established way. The conformity people had was based on the need to find security for and within the society they lived in. It was a formal, uniform way of thinking which relied on the consensus of the many and formed a common web of support to fall back upon when events demanded it.

For instance If a girl fell pregnant the boy responsible was duty bound to marry the girl and help fund the family, not to do so was seen by the society as disreputable and he was blacklisted as untrustworthy. Today it's a lottery if the couple marry, there is no  censure if the girl is left to raise the child on her own and certainly that element we called 'responsibility' is now a days discounted as irrelevant.

The attitude to teachers and the police was totally different as was our attitude to most people in authority. We accepted that structures were there for a purpose, in the long run to protect us and we saw the need for balance between the members of the same society. Income tax for-instance was seen as necessary, it was the fuel to make a provision for services which we all relied on. Road building and repair, street lighting, the refuse collection, gas and electricity, the nurses and doctors were all funded out of tax and whilst our pay packets were meagre we accepted the deduction as a means to live in a civilised country.

Today we see ourselves as individuals and a "beggar thy neighbour" instinct is alive in most people. The question of who pays for social and infrastructure services never seems to be raised and only when, because of a lack of funds these services are withdrawn due an unwillingness to pay taxes are we surprised when we see no police on the streets or fewer doctors and nurses in our hospitals. When we find that the council run Old Age homes have been sold to private investment companies who are allowed to charge ridiculous fees, forcing these most vulnerable members of society who in my youth could look to the State to look after them, now have to hand over any savings, including the house to cover the cost.

This disconnect between ourselves and others. This lack of awareness of how we are integrated. That only if we accept this will we survive the discombobulation which lies ahead.