In non-collectivist societies, most individuals seek to impress upon others their distinction, their originality, their uniqueness– this isn’t surprising, considering the emphasis on individualism in assessing the value of a person.  Personal value– value as a human, and social status, run in lockstep with job status, income, intelligence, and other indices that all rely on exclusivity: something that one individual has that others do not.  These indices and collections, of friends, of money, of unique attributes, serve not only to reinforce an individual’s value but establish it.

Money is a valuable commodity whose acquisition is difficult (and generally requires a withdrawal from another individual), so the more you have, the more unique you are.  Intelligence is not a limited resource in the same way but scarcity is arrived at through deviation from the norm; a “collection” that distinguishes the highly intelligent from the average.  These collections and indices must be socially appraised as positive, otherwise you achieve bad uniqueness.  Being crusted in dried smegma and reeking of human feces is extremely unique, but even the staunchest non-conformist would be unlikely found in such a state: despite the quick path to non-conformity.

A minority of people vociferously reject any idea of conformity with the sweaty heaving masses.  The sweaty, heaving masses, i.e. the average person, are seen as despicable, contemptible, and incapable.  By their appearance and behaviour the non-conformist seeks to establish, in a trivial way, the aforementioned uniqueness.  However, there are a few caveats: as it turns out, nearly all attempts at non-conformity are shallow and contradictory.

Conformity to Physics – at the grandest scale of all, the non-conformist must obey the laws of physics.  This may seem trivial: it isn’t.  Try as they might, the non-conformist must, with great anger, feel their flesh tugged downward (near something big and heavy, anyway).  With great anger, they must note that a balloon will attach itself to the wall after acquiring a static charge from them– in the very same way it would with any of the other conforming, interchangeable humans.

Conformity to Biology – The non-conformist is appalled: to have animal cells that function in the same way as the cells composing the balance of the world.  To have bones and joints supported by a musculature that has developed over millions of years.  To have eyes and white blood cells.  To have the same goddamned internal organs as that oafish turd on the subway.

Conformity to Ontogeny – The non-conformist, undoubtedly with immense discomfort, notes the progress of his or her physical being from single cell through all the same stages of development to the present.

Conformity to Species – All humans are humans.  How infuriatingly conformist.

Conformity to Broad Social Rules and Customs – Even the most clever non-conformist won’t brandish their genitalia in public, spit in an elevator, make prolonged eye-contact with a stranger, sleep on the floor of a bookstore, defecate in H&M, ride a dog about town, etc.

Conformity to Law – Similar to above: most non-conformists will conform to the laws of  a given society, such as rules for parking or punching people’s faces.

Conformity to an In-Group – The most disturbing fallacy of non-conformity is the existence of the in-group; this is the group to which the non-conformist conforms to a much higher degree than the average person.  In this way the conformist demonstrates a level of commitment to a peer-group that is not seen amongst “average people.”  It could be argued that having a very strong identification to a much smaller group is more non-conformist than a weak identification with a larger group: however as above, such weak identifications are already made in addition to the strong one.  This type of in-group behaviour could be called desperate uniqueness or pseudo-individualism.

Taken altogether, the above paint a bleak picture for the non-conformist: the options for alternative configurations are scarce and shallow.  Indeed, few are those who can be found to believe themselves “average” in the first place, a fact that renders the non-conformist’s rejections flaccid and hopeless.  In distancing themselves from and repudiating the idea of this mythical average every-man they contradictorily nurture an ignorant conformity that betrays a fundamental misapprehension of the world and their role within it.