conformity?
We must conform - it's the only way!
Non-conformists are seen as a bit of a weird bunch. Either seen as anarchists who wish to destabilise the society, or as social misfits, unable to slot into "normal" operating behaviour. But what does it mean to really not conform?
Whilst walking the streets of scotland's capital city, edinburgh, on the hunt for new premises at the beginning of last year, for the start of the natural mind project, I asked myself why I was doing this. Why was I starting a project that was ultimately to remove the power of money for our basic needs? And I
couldn't come up with an answer straight away.
You see, as I was walking down the main street, I looked at everyone around me, busily hurrying past with their shopping bags, filled to the brim with food, presents, and whatever else took their fancy. Did they care that I thought we were heading in complete the wrong direction as a species?
No, of course they didn't. In fact they didn't even know what I was thinking.
But I can understand that. After all, if “new” me, told “old” me, the same things I am talking to you about ten years ago, I would have told myself I was mad! “What? You starting a project where the main aim is not to charge any money, you must be crazy!” So it is with that thought in mind that I
decided to tread very carefully. You see, even ten years ago, I was not a bad person. I didn't set out to deliberately hurt anyone, or harm the environment, although that was what was probably happening by my lack of awareness. I just did what everyone else did. I conformed. I knew that in order to eat, pay my bills, go to the cinema, and go on holiday, I needed to earn money. It was drilled into me from a young age, so I never thought anymore about it. I just did what I was told was necessary for me to have a happy life. So I am not going to criticise anyone for conforming. It is just a feature of the mind being asleep!
So if I happily conformed for many years, why should anyone else stop conforming? Why shouldn't they deny themselves the pleasure of christmas; the pleasure of a nice house and holidays; the pleasure of a new flat screen television and consumer goods? Who am I to tell people they don't
need money to be happy? Who am I to tell people that the life they are living is perhaps an illusion created by companies, governments, and religions? But it is an illusion, even if you believe me or not. Not in the way the spiritualists would have you believe but in a real down to earth “illusion”
kind of way.
I am not saying the earth itself is an illusion, or the birds singing in the trees is an illusion, but the things we surround our human self with – are.
You see, I want to know who I would be if I no longer had a house, or nice clothes, or holidays, or the ability to go on a plane, or be told I was clever. I want to know who I would be without electricity, and modern media. I want to know who I would be without my education, and the culture of my country. I want to know what it means to be human – conforming just makes it harder to find out.
So I have chosen not to conform; not because I wish to rebel, but because I wish to go deeper than conformity will allow, do you understand? I want to go deep into my human self. I want to know where it all went wrong for homo sapiens. I want to know why we have divided ourselves from nature.
As I looked around me that week week, all I could see was the faces of conformity. Surely this was not a species of explorers labelled as the most intelligent species on the planet? This was a species of automatons – doing whatever they had been programmed to do. Am I wrong? I hope so. But to find
out, conforming is the last thing we should be doing.
Break free of conformity. Open your mind.
Non-conformists are seen as a bit of a weird bunch. Either seen as anarchists who wish to destabilise the society, or as social misfits, unable to slot into "normal" operating behaviour. But what does it mean to really not conform?
Whilst walking the streets of scotland's capital city, edinburgh, on the hunt for new premises at the beginning of last year, for the start of the natural mind project, I asked myself why I was doing this. Why was I starting a project that was ultimately to remove the power of money for our basic needs? And I
couldn't come up with an answer straight away.
You see, as I was walking down the main street, I looked at everyone around me, busily hurrying past with their shopping bags, filled to the brim with food, presents, and whatever else took their fancy. Did they care that I thought we were heading in complete the wrong direction as a species?
No, of course they didn't. In fact they didn't even know what I was thinking.
But I can understand that. After all, if “new” me, told “old” me, the same things I am talking to you about ten years ago, I would have told myself I was mad! “What? You starting a project where the main aim is not to charge any money, you must be crazy!” So it is with that thought in mind that I
decided to tread very carefully. You see, even ten years ago, I was not a bad person. I didn't set out to deliberately hurt anyone, or harm the environment, although that was what was probably happening by my lack of awareness. I just did what everyone else did. I conformed. I knew that in order to eat, pay my bills, go to the cinema, and go on holiday, I needed to earn money. It was drilled into me from a young age, so I never thought anymore about it. I just did what I was told was necessary for me to have a happy life. So I am not going to criticise anyone for conforming. It is just a feature of the mind being asleep!
So if I happily conformed for many years, why should anyone else stop conforming? Why shouldn't they deny themselves the pleasure of christmas; the pleasure of a nice house and holidays; the pleasure of a new flat screen television and consumer goods? Who am I to tell people they don't
need money to be happy? Who am I to tell people that the life they are living is perhaps an illusion created by companies, governments, and religions? But it is an illusion, even if you believe me or not. Not in the way the spiritualists would have you believe but in a real down to earth “illusion”
kind of way.
I am not saying the earth itself is an illusion, or the birds singing in the trees is an illusion, but the things we surround our human self with – are.
You see, I want to know who I would be if I no longer had a house, or nice clothes, or holidays, or the ability to go on a plane, or be told I was clever. I want to know who I would be without electricity, and modern media. I want to know who I would be without my education, and the culture of my country. I want to know what it means to be human – conforming just makes it harder to find out.
So I have chosen not to conform; not because I wish to rebel, but because I wish to go deeper than conformity will allow, do you understand? I want to go deep into my human self. I want to know where it all went wrong for homo sapiens. I want to know why we have divided ourselves from nature.
As I looked around me that week week, all I could see was the faces of conformity. Surely this was not a species of explorers labelled as the most intelligent species on the planet? This was a species of automatons – doing whatever they had been programmed to do. Am I wrong? I hope so. But to find
out, conforming is the last thing we should be doing.
Break free of conformity. Open your mind.
