To Those Who Fail to Conform

Using the term in its broadest meaning, history has produced many non-conformists. Every generation produces many non-conformists. And, indeed, every community, and perhaps almost every family, produces its quota of those who fail to conform⎯those who don’t go along with their associates and contemporaries; those who want to be different; those who, for one reason or another, have their own ideas and reserve the right to express them, or to live them. Non-conformity does not necessarily imply either a desirable or an undesirable quality. Desirability or undesirability in this instance deepens upon what his motives and his reasons are. If he has a sincere conviction of a truth that is not commonly accepted by the company he keeps, or if he refuses to concur in errors and abuses that are prevalent around him, being a non-conformist may be, and often is, a mark of commendable distinction. Some who have lived lives of non-conformity have been heroes and benefactors of mankind. But some have been merely rebellious spirits, willfully refusing to comply with anything that is generally accepted⎯people who resent having to conform even to wise and necessary laws⎯who resent the inconvenience of observing the common courtesies. We see them often⎯genuinely contrary people⎯people who stand flat-footed when they are urged to move forward; people who will argue about anything at any time, because it seems to be contrary to their nature to agree to anything without an argument; people who reserve the right to ignore all the customs, all the traditions, all the rules, all the regulations; who resent, discredit, or scorn what others stand for, what other men hold sacred, what others find necessary or desirable or true. And, having taken their stand, such people are forever having to explain to themselves why it is right to be wrong, thus wearing themselves down unhappily and miserably by the friction of their own thoughts. There are times when in is heroic to be a non-conformist, and there are times when it is just plain stupid. Before a man resists something that is commonly accepted, the basis for his resistance should be a conviction of truth⎯and not merely a rebellious spirit or a contrary disposition.