America’s slogan might as well be “home of the Independent, land of the independent” By why don’t people think for themselves? I have yet to meet one person in my entire life who does not conform to society.

Of course, there is the argument of not conforming as conforming but I still have yet to meet a non-conformists. There are sub-cultures in America, and even counter-cultures, but even the members of those cultures are conformists.

In my time, I have come to the conclusion that Americans cannot think for themselves. It is impossible. MTV is too attractive and the thought of being not liked is too strong. In Japan they have a saying: “A nail that sticks out is hammered down.” Might as well teach it to our kids because Americans basically live by the same principal.

Think of it this way: Everyone wears a uniform. The preps have polo, khaki and dress shirts. Punks have piercings, chains spikes and tattoos. Skaters have hoodies, cut-offs and Tee-shirts. The thugs, or all my grimy brothers, have Timberlands, and the denim get-up.

Is there anything wrong with this? No. Why should there be? Except there are two problems. One, pop culture gets real old quick, i.e. Brittany Spears and N’Sync and two, Americans are always talking about how different they are.

From a sociological viewpoint, we do this for one reason and one reason only, we need companionship. Look at what happened to the countries most famous hermit. A graduate of Harvard University, the uni-bomber, went nuts and well, as his name suggests he blew up people, places and things. People need people. It’s how we get ideas and how we get out feelings and grow as people. Without human contact we end up like our friend, the aforementioned Thoedore and our pent up energy and aggression turns for the worse.

My problem is with conformity is conformity of ideas. I see it today, especially since this country is at war. It is also very interesting, since I am an advocate of change in our “great” nation. With the tragedy that rocked the country many people were rightfully outraged and, for the first time in a long time, people felt compassion towards each other. Tragedies often bring out the best and the worst in all of us. The best being our new found brotherhood and the worst being our excuse for destruction and inhumanity.

For me the tragedy did not change my viewpoint of this country. It is still the same country that decided it would topple governments in South America so that I could enjoy a banana for breakfast. It is still the same country that was brutal to the inhabitants of the island of Cuba. Whether you like it or not Batista, Fidel’s predecessor, killed more and impoverished more than Castro. And Batista was supported and instated by the one and only US of A.

Not to get sidetracked, I still feel the same way about this country or should I say this countries government. Because I feel nothing personal towards my fellow citizens, in fact, we are all in the same fight to struggle for some decency in this country. Did I feel the pain and agony that many other suffered after the WTC fell to the ground,? Well not exactly, all my family in NYC was safe, but yes, I was hurt and am still very, very pissed off about the inhumanity that took place. After all I would be a hypocrite since all I seem to advocate these days is a little human decency and most of all humanity towards others.

As for my good friend GW, I still think he should rot in hell and I would love to see him fry like all the people on death row that he was responsible. But there is a little more hypocrisy for you. See, when it all comes down to it, you and I have no opportunity to think for ourselves. We choose our actions, what we want our art to look like, the certain way we want to express ourselves and what we want on our burgers, or veggie burgers. But we are humans, we co-exist, we feed off of each other. Humans are really one. Now before I sound like the pot smoking hippie that I am let me say I mean this hypothetically. Rambling is what I do, but if we are so individual, which we are not, it would go to say, “Yes be belligerent, act like a jerk to your fellow humans, kill each other and most of all hate each other and go to war with each other.”

I am also not saying that America is the only one to blame. I spoke of Japan earlier, and there conformity is a way of life, and to say that many Muslims are not conformists? C’mon, take a look for yourself.

I guess all I am trying to say is accept you conformity, reach out to a fellow human being and stop the hate, end the violence. Do we really believe that war is a solution and that it will end terrorism?

Where did this all start?

Discuss amongst yourselves, I’m all veclempt.