The Green caldron - University Library

October, 1960
there'll be modifications, but they all follow a set pattern that can't be
changed. Besides, even if it were possible for a fellow to have something to
say about the way things go, his own patterns have already been set by the
society he's been brought up in, and even if he doesn't like what's happening,
he doesn't know how to change it, because that's one thing he's never
been taught.
So, like I say, he just experiments a little, to see what he can get away
with. In a little while, he'll settle down and learn to be like everybody else,
just like the people who came before him did. He'll stop breaking the rules
by then.
Maybe like the symbol-crazy fellow would say, this guy with the feet
is rebelling against society. Or maybe he's just being a normal, gung-ho
college student and he's goofing off a little bit and he doesn't have any
emotional problems that are making him put his feet up on the ceiling
without taking his shoes off and not even knowing why he's doing it.
But the footprints are there. And the rules can't be changed.
In a way, I sort of feel sorry for the guy with the feet. There's always
somebody to tell him what to do and how to do it, and if he doesn't he's
symbolizing Youth's Antagonism Toward Maturity or some such junk.
I feel like writing "go to hell" on the wall. But I know I won't.
Conformity
John Saunders
Rhetoric 101, Theme C
IW/HAT IS CONFORMITY? MANY THINK OF IT AS A FOUL
\\/ word. Others use it as a creed in life. In reality it means simply
being inconspicuous. A man who moves with the traffic is a con-
formist. Conformity is Order.
Is conformity bad? The nonconformists says the person who shapes
himself to the mold of society has no individuality ; however, the ego of the
conformist has more opportunity to assert itself than that of the nonconformist.
The conformist does not have to worry about whether he is like another or
not. His mind is free to work on other problems of more importance.
Conformity is freedom.
Is conformity necessary? Yes. Conformity eliminates friction in society.
It allows the minds of men to grow without the restricting fetters of worry
and fear. Conformity is a mold for a way of life. Conformity is civilization.
5