Living a human life entails membership in a variety of human groups.
This typically includes groups such as nation, culture, profession, religion, family, and peer group. We find ourselves participating in groups before we are aware of ourselves as living beings. We find ourselves in groups in virtually every setting in which we function as persons. What is more, every group to which we belong has some social definition of itself and unspoken “rules” that guide the behavior of all members. Each group to which we belong imposes some level of conformity on us as a condition of acceptance. This includes a set of beliefs, behaviors, requirements, and taboos. All of us, to varying degrees, accept as right and correct whatever ways of acting and believing are fostered in the social groups to which we belong. Typically, this acceptance is uncritical. Group membership clearly offers some advantages. But those advantages come with a price. Many people behave unethically because it is expected of them. Groups impose their rules (conventions, folkways, taboos) on individuals. Group membership is in various ways “required” for ordinary acts of living. Suppose, for example, that you wanted to legally belong to no nation, to be a citizen not of a country but of the world. You would not be allowed that freedom. You would find that you were allowed no place to live, nor any way to travel from place to place. Every place in the world is claimed by some nation (as its “sovereign” possession), and every nation requires that all visitors to it come as citizens of some other country (thus, with a “passport”). In addition, everywhere a nation imposes its “sovereignty,” it requires the obedience of all persons to literally thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of laws. For most people, blind conformity to group restrictions is automatic and unreflective. Most people effortlessly conform without recognizing their conformity. They internalize group norms and beliefs, take on the group identity, and act as they are expected to act—without the least sense that what they are doing might reasonably be questioned. Most people function in social groups as unreflective participants in a range of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors analogous to those of urban street gangs.
And conformity is one of the evils of human society. Why? Because
through conformity, arbitrary social rules are treated as if they were inherently good and right. Arbitrary social rules lead to any number of unjust practices. Consider the ways in which people who do not abide by social conventions are marginalized within a culture. For example, consider the groups who tend to be marginalized in the U.S.—atheists, people who protest wars, people who speak out against unethical government practices when the mainstream is not speaking out. Furthermore, consider how arbitrary social conventions often lead to arbitrary laws, the enforcement of which often results in human suffering (for example, unjust prison sentences). When you have developed as a skilled, independent thinker, you do not mindlessly follow the crowd. You think for yourself. You figure out for yourself what makes sense to believe and what to reject. You recognize social rules and taboos for what they often are: subjective creations of an unthinking mass. Of course, it is often quite difficult to critically analyze the cultural conventions existing within one’s own culture. These conventions are systematically indoctrinated into our thinking throughout a lifetime. As the reigning beliefs, they surround us. Overcoming indoctrination requires committed effort, insight, and courage.
Strategies for becoming an independent thinker:
1. Write down your answers to these questions: What are some of the taboos in my culture? What behaviors are considered shocking or disgusting? What beliefs are treated as sacred? What penalties exist for people who do not abide by social rules, even though their behavior doesn’t hurt anyone (and even though these rules come and go over the years)? 2. Notice how cultural taboos and rules are fostered within the culture. Note, for example, how often messages about “good” and “bad” behavior are the focus of TV programs and movies. Consider, for example, the number of TV programs focused on the police “catching” people in possession of illegal drugs, on the “good guys” catching the “bad guys” and locking them up. Do you fi nd yourself cheering on the “good guys” and hoping the “bad guys get what’s coming to them?” If so, why? In the real world, more harm and suff ering are often caused by the offi cial “good guys” than the offi cial “bad guys.” See if you can identify some examples.
3. Examine the extent to which you uncritically accept the taboos
and requirements of your culture and social groups. Monitor your conformity. Begin a list of ways in which you can begin to think independently. 4. Make a list of problems that people experience as a result of mass conformity to arbitrary social rules. How do you contribute to those problems? 5. Read W.G. Sumner’s book Folkways,5 in which he describes a broad range of societies and behaviors within varying time periods. Imagine yourself living within those various cultures. What beliefs would you hold dear? How would you behave? How would your beliefs and behaviors diff er from your current beliefs and behaviors? 6. Notice the extent to which your friends and family members conform to whatever social ideology is reigning at the moment. Notice the extent to which you are stifled by the groups to which you belong (those groups you choose to belong to, and those you belong to because you have no choice). Realize that independent thinkers often prefer to be alone, rather than attempt to fit into groups that irrationally and mindlessly conform to arbitrary social rules. Recognize that there is one free community you can always join—the community of independent thinkers found in the best books that have ever been written. Independent thinkers can always find a range of great thinkers waiting for them at the library.