A Society Enslaved To Conformity

“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth”, so said US President John F. Kennedy, two years before his death. Over 50 years later we live in a society enslaved to the conformity of thought. A society in which issues seem to be governed by a trial by public opinion rather than a trial by jury, something which some seem to have been forgotten is a founding pillar of our democracy.

As human being’s conformity is certainly understandable. We feel pressured to conform, to fit in and to not speak out; it is often the easy and passive path, yet it is precisely for this reason that we must speak out for what we truly believe. Currently a prevailing mindset seems to have come to dominate out political discourse, the perception of an infallible majority. Not subscribing to majoritarian views has come to be considered extreme, where many feel that they cannot speak out for their true beliefs, without being judged, persecuted or shut down for such beliefs. Is this the true mark of a true liberal society? I don’t think so, and it certainly is not the form of liberalism that the intellectuals and activists of the movement believed in - individuals such as William Gladstone, John Locke and Millicent Fawcett.

Day by day there is an ever present danger that as we move forward as a society, we forget the past and thus an understanding of the who, what, where, when and why. Yet it is understanding and remembrance that has made the society we have today and without history we have no future. We should cherish different opinions, debate and discussion, and there should be no striving to operate as thought-police – that is a dangerously authoritarian route to take which makes people fear saying anything! One only has to look to the Twittersphere and Facebook to see a toxic cauldron of reactionary anger and hatefulness which do make people fear. None of us should want a nation of drones that seeks outrage and that, at a deeper level, just hates and fears one another. We do seem to have become a country where people are quick to anger and slow to listen, and even if such an angry approach may sometimes seem to ‘win’ the argument, the reality is it often means the heart of the person is lost and problems are swept under the carpet.

It must also always be remembered that we are all individuals of equal worth, whether we are a Conservative, Socialist, Liberal, Brexiter, Remainer, Nationalist, Internationalist, or from the multitude of other views and opinions that represent the true reality of our United Kingdom.

As the great British writer Evelyn Beatrice Hall (often wrongly attributed to the French philosopher Voltaire) wrote, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”. The touting of tolerance is nothing without an active reality, and that is something that seems to have been lost in a society that just operates with majoritarian conformity, brothers and sisters. Yet it is those words from Ms Hall that are what sum up the meaning of democracy, free thought and true liberalism.