Going on the same track Digital Anthrax opened, I would like to pose a question to you all:

Do you think a person can supress their natural state and be at all healthy? Do you think that there are parts of a person which should be controlled to a large degree?

Yes otheriwse i'd blow up at people everyday on the train network trying to get to Uni.

Depends on what you mean by 'healthy', I guess.

There are people who, very naturally to them, have absolutely no rage control. They can suppress this with medications, or other non-chemical means, but they're still suppressing a part of who they are. Simply a part of them that they probably don't actually like.

I think there are antisocial behaviours (and I mean that in the true, clinical sense, not the "I don't feel like going out to the club tonight" sense) which are better off controlled, yes, because we live in a society and we can't go 'round smiting people for no good reason, can we. (As much fun as that can be.)

...Not in the sense of having perfect (Physical and phsychological) health. But really... For the health and sanity of those of us who would be seriously hurt if they didn't do so, they probably should.

I've never really been forced to try and fit in... And I've never really been forced to not fit in (Or both in vice-versa). I sorta grew up in a home where strangeness was made fun of, but totally accepted. It was all a matter of finding people who could put up with my trivialities. (Really really random fanart references, "strange" music tastes, comic/cartoon obsessions, social ineptitude, larger than average vocab, my habit of listening but not hearing... The list is rather long. )

One problem with this thread. No matter what you do, you conform to one thing or another. Really, there's no such thing as a non-conformist, because although you don't conform to one thing, you conform to another. Hell, you're even conforming to non-conformity. Actually, the South Park episode where Stan goes Goth, the "Goth Kids" go on about how they hate conformists, then when Stan asks how to join them, they say "Listen to the same music, write dark poetry, and wear the same clothes as us" or something like that. No matter what you wear or do, you conform. Thats just my personal belief though, which also basically says I don't believe conforming or not is rellevant to the goth scene, or any scene for that matter.

{Edit} The South Park Goth Kids thing probably seems irrelevant to most, but studied closely (seeing the episode, basically), is an example of what I'm trying to say, although made to be a mockery, shows human nature towards the conformists vs. non-conformists issue.

There are definitely parts of our personalities that should be controlled or suppressed. I had a friend in high school who developed schizophrenia; she lost almost all her impulse control and sense of social appropriateness. She was horrible. On top of being violent and self-destructive, she was rude, offensive, embarrassing, and totally unreasonable. My experience with her made me realize just how much we take normalcy for granted.

"Healthy" is maintaining a sense of balance; knowing when to stick to your guns and when to go with the flow. There are times when conformity isn't bad at all. It's a matter of consequences. When the consequences of non-conformity outweigh the benefits, then being yourself isn't healthy.

That episode is the best one ever I also love "go ahead and wear a business suit so you can make $34,000 a year and buy your condominium... they're all zombies racing to their graves"

I really wish that song they always listen to was a real song so I can listen to it when I write poetry just out of tribute

I recentaly saw a sign. It was for an Anerchist (spelling) group MEETING. anerchey means the absence of order?!?!!??

These people have become the exact thing that they wanted to bring down.

My point is we try to be non-conformist and we coform to the non-conformist ideal. The main problem is that to be non conformist we must do some thing that has not been done before..... please prove me wrong and find me that which has not been done in this day and age. There are so many levels of norm at this stage that we no longer know what normal is.

~CoD~

P.S. I apoligize for any spelling mistakes but i lost word's spell check i cant spell to save my life.

*rolls eyes*

No. You're wrong. Anarchy does not mean "absence of order." The foremost definition is absence of political authority. I suggest you invest in a dictionary. Anarchists have always been organised; probably more organised than most activism groups.

Anarchy FAQ

And the rest of your post rather pointlessly reiterates the same things that others have said again and again in this thread, albeit in a circular and convoluted manner.

I love this thread. It is great to be in a place where intelligent discussions are actively encouraged, and one does not have to put up with "et sux cuz i dont lik it" puskkaa.

Yeah...I have entertained fantasies about 'zilla stompin' certain areas of human habitation.
Some here have said that total non-conformity is impossible. I do not completely agree; I think it is all up to the individual rather they will be "in line" with any one belief, practice, etcetera or not. Of coarse, there are many non-conformist actions for which I think the results outweigh the often political choice to not follow the general consensus. If other people think someone is a conformist-spiting closet conformist because they have blue hair and black makeup and their buds do too, who cares? They may do it because they like it and not give two shakes what their friends think, or they may do it because they want to be identified as part of a group...one way or the other, I would have to give it some serious effort to care much less if some stranger thinks I'm an unknowing fat clone of (fill in the blank with some gothic female icon)...unless they call me that to my face, of coarse.

I'm sure everone here has heard this phrase: "If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?"

This is one arguement you could get from non-conformist - I'm not saying anyone here says this, but there is the idea that following bandwagons in an effort to blindly conform is pointless.

This does go both ways however.

Lets change the example sentence that I used earlier into: "If nobody jumped off a bridge, would you do it to be different?"

Conforming is sometimes necissary, it becomes a problem when one conforms blindly without reason.

Nope. Jumping off bridges is stupid.


Yep. The reverse is true as well, methinks. It seems to me that is one of the reasons why punk faded.

I don't really "try" to be non-conformist at all. I just try whenever I can to do what I want to do, irrespective of what someone else tells me to do. That may or may not fit in with what other people are doing. Sometimes other people like to do the same things as me and sometimes they don't. The only thing is that I don't want to base myself on what others think.

skull_n_crossbolts: Perhaps you might, though, "try" and not re-animate threads which have been dead for more than a year like this one has.