Quotes About Conformity

The most common reason we stumble into the delusion of powerlessness is that we're afraid of what other people would do or say or feel if we were to act as we wanted.

When I was a kid it was like, who could be the coolest? Who could do the stupidest thing? And you knew it was a stupid thing to do, but you would do it just so you could be the coolest guy. And then you end up doing really cruel crap.

One person is never as stupid as a group of people. That's why they have lynch mobs, not lynch individuals.

I dress according to the requirement of the film, as a true actor. Off the camera, I'm just me. I have my preferences and my personal style. Before I step out, I look into the mirror just to confirm that my style is intact. Beyond this, it doesn't matter.

Very early in my career, I thought I had to conform to one style of leadership - lead by being the loudest one in the room, with the sharpest elbows.

Protesting is fundamentally submissive.

At which point should we let go and do what we want to do, and when should we submit to rules? Coming to terms with our true natures and who we really are has always been a fascination to humans. I know it fascinates me.

I'm very good at pretending to be subservient; I'm really good at it.

I hate the term black sheep, but I just felt like I wasn't keeping up. It was a subtle pressure I put on myself.

I can't see myself as a very domesticated person, with a suburb house and stuff like that.

I grew up in such a featureless, personality-less suburb. There was nothing to push against.

I come from a very straight and adjusted suburban background.

Irvine, being a planned community, is really good shorthand, especially in a movie or book, for understanding suburban pressures.

I went through different looks. At one period, I was preppy because that's how I grew up. But then I had bleached hair in the front. And I used to wear - then I wanted to be a beatnik. It was hard to be a beatnik in suburban Baltimore. But I wanted to be one.

In most cultures, you can have a kid at 18 and it's not a big thing. It's not like, 'Oh, you've got to get a different haircut and move to the suburbs and act, like, 35.'

That's the trouble with the suburbs: it's not a city, so you're not anonymous, and it's not a small town, so that people really care about you, but everybody kind of knows each other's business, so you're very judged.

In high school, it was very fashionable to be disdainful of the bourgeois suburbs, but I secretly liked them.

Bandwagons roll through our lives. It's up to you whether you jump on them unquestioningly or jump on them to overturn them and subvert them.

People relate to the spirit of the band, which is to live your way and succeed on your own terms. There's no hypocrisy in being successful and still railing against conformity.

I am society's child. This is how they made me and now I'm sayin' what's on my mind and they don't want that. This is what you made me, America.

Americans at the top have become the experts in countersignaling, because they don't feel they have to impress anyone. Everything is now casual, because the new aristocracy of talent enforces all the conformity that is needed. The

The only way to live a perfect life is to not take risks, to just sit in a little box and never go after what you want or reach for your goals

Nature is busy creating absolutely unique individuals, whereas culture has invented a single mold to which all must conform. It is grotesque.

I don't have any moral position. Society, which has created all these sociopaths, has invented morality to protect itself from them. Count me out.