Non-Conformity- The New Cliche
Over eons we have conditioned our minds to follow the beaten track. With the advent of corporate culture and the trend of outsourcing, we have ushered the novel thought of non-conformity and to think out of the box. Before the culture of start-ups was ushered, most confirmed to doing a job until their retirement. That was the standard way of living. The American culture in India through outsourcing jobs changed our outlook towards the choices we made. This is not an assumption but a fact.
Today non-conformity and thinking out of the box has become a norm, a cliche. In every walk of life, we look for creative solutions. They are not privy to corporates or workforce alone. Our thought process has evolved from living a monotonous life to making conscious choices, following our passion, listening to our hearts. Two decades before this we cared less about our true calling, or pursuing things we loved to do, it was not the norm.
Until the 90’s we were accustomed to the thought of following the orthodox path of getting an education and finding a job. That is where our lives stopped. We didn’t explore other options or look deep within ourselves. Our goals were decided by our parents and we had less say about the choices we made.
The idea of learning and education was sanctioned with conservative ideas and a way of life. Even today millions of people are uncomfortable with the idea of following their dreams and ‘settle’ with the canonical patterns of life.
Today, non-conformity has become the way of life. We have battled our mindsets from following middling ideologies to exploring our true potential. But there is a dark side to this. Are we stretching the idea of non-conformity a little too far that we are forgetting to retain old-school good values? Are they so obsolete that we have stopped giving importance to inherent goodness? Shouldn’t there be a balance between conforming and non-conforming ideologies instead of taking it to the extreme?
The Advent Of Non-Conforming Ideology
The Y2k bug hit the world, sending the it into a phase of what seemed like a blackout. But something magical happened. The magic of outsourcing paved a new path to understand a new culture from the other side of the world. The hoi polloi was introduced to a novel approach towards living an American dream. Times when offices in India worked six days a week, those times changed and we started to have a weekend plan.
We had yoga and all the spiritual wealth but we waited for the western countries to take a notice to start valuing it. But we have evolved knowing how they think, imbuing our lives with the ideologies of freedom of spirit which was etched in ink by Benjimin Franklin in Declaration of Independance. America, was probably built on these profound principles of free-thinking which is the most valuable virtue to possess and not let go despite challenging situations.
Our ideology of giving importance to freedom of spirit has begotten the need of thinking out-of-the-box which has over two decades has become a cliche. Do we need more than just thinking-out-of-the-box ideas or do we have to take a few steps back and evaluate the limitations of free-thinking. How much is too much?
Come to think about, we hear stories of many those who have sacrificed their freedom for material wealth. But there are those few, unique individuals who live their lives with courage because with courage comes a sense of freedom. Now let us explore in depth, what is free-thinking how it leads to creative and innovative thinking.
The Paradox Of Old School Values
What are old school values? They are not self-righteous ideologies about how to live your life. They are values based on honesty and ethical behavior. What is ethical behavior? In vernacular terms, not to deceive or break trust. In a world where manipulative behavior has become a way of life, old school values such as honesty are derided.
Deception comes with numerous camouflaged condiments such as trickery, conning, and other manipulative maneuvers. For instance, if you are from a media company and your fragile ego is hurt, so you figure out the details of your rival, use the manipulative maneuver of influencing people in the surrounding areas with false perception of your rival and bring them down in every way possible. I heard, in today’s business world this seems to be a common manipulative tactic to bring down your competitors.
Malicious rumors, office politics, are some of the common evil behaviors which we are rationalizing and making it a way of life, diminishing the values of goodness and honest behavior. This has led to chaos giving birth to the paradox and dilemmas about good values.
Have people become so inept, evil, and incompetent that they have made malicious and harmful machinations a way of life to bring honest, hardworking people down because it satiates their fragile ego? What is sad, that in the name of competitive behavior, most organizations are rationalizing evil tactics and criminal behavior. They want to achieve goals at any cost, at the cost of good values, or other people’s lives. We need to live consciously and put a leash on these evil attitudes, power plays, and deception which is prevalent and has become a way of life for many.
The Void of Power Plays – Pride Vs Ego
In the entertainment industry, EGO is one of the deadly sins you have to deal with because pride is not existent. But, what is pride? Pride come from good values and a sense of achievement and ethical behavior. Ego, the deadliest sin comes with false pride, a false perception about self without concrete proof of potential, talent, or goodness. Ego is development inside the mind and not the subconscious because it is a kind of mental illness, a kind of devilry that makes a person take the wrong route of harming others to satisfy their ego for invalid and ludicrous reasons. Isn’t entertainment industry filled with such senseless, evil, egotistical, famous people who think they have the gavel to make decisions? about the lives of those who challenge their fragile egos?
Don’t we need better people in this industry who have better associations and who do good to people using their fame and power instead of harming lives because it hurts their fragile ego? We can bring about a good change when we stop accepting harmful behaviors from famous, and powerful people who misuse it to trouble and harm. Well, not every famous and powerful person is malicious, but there are those who do terrible things, and we need to call them out and put an end to this devilry.
That’s non-conformity for me, to stand up for yourself and not follow the crowd of blindly venerating famous people who do terrible things and accept corruption as a way of life. Will this non-conformity be your new cliche? Are you up for this challenge which can make a difference in not just your life but has a do-gooder ripple effect encouraging people not to fall in the trap of power-plays and be involved in the devilry of targeting honest people because they have backing of such evil, powerful people?
Stealing Other’s Unique Personality Traits To ‘Appear Different’
Entertainment industry creates famous people who lack personality. I am talking about mimics who lack originality or personality of their own that they copy other’s unique traits and mouth their attitude ‘word-to-word’ to ‘appear unique’ without an iota of honesty and make a propaganda about being ‘down-to-earth’ and making a facade of feign humility.
I know of such a mellow-mannered, pretentious, conniving woman who has worked with a top television channel and has been using that experience to copy and steal everything I do, especially, creatively. I have witnessed, especially, woman from the media industry lacking personality and it has become a prevalent practice to copy other people’s unique traits and attitudes to ‘appear unique’ and get somewhere in life. Such shallow women are infested in the industry. Therefore, we must take it upon ourselves not to conform to these mimicked personalities who lack honesty and primary human qualities. Isn’t media industry about uniqueness? But what they encourage is mimicked, unoriginal personalities who are able to pull off such gimmicks and trickery successfully. Let’s not conform to such attitudes and behaviors which has become a common practice in the media industry.