It is always strange when an icon dies. Especially when the person was a cultural icon who instigated change. George Harrison, Mike Wieringo, and now recently, George Carlin, are all men who, though I have never met, I have had respect for because of what they did in life. All of them were bold enough to take grasp of social norms and shatter them in some way, not because they wished to frighten or offend, but because they desired to show people that different didn’t necessarily mean bad.
Too often people are frightened by the idea of “different”. Yes, to an extent, it is a sort of survival mechanism. I mean, if you ate green cabbage all your life, and suddenly you found a head of blue cabbage, wouldn’t you be suspicious about taking the first bite? Blue cabbage could be poisonous, however it could also be delicious. No on knows until that first step is taken. However, even after that first step, people remain suspect to the “new” thing. And maybe they should.
Even if the only argument for “normal” was survival, it is important to point out that conformity kills. A bold statement, yes, but to take a step back from the immediate and look at things in the long term, one can see truth to that statement. Inbreeding causes unhealthy, incomplete genetic offspring. Cultural solidarity causes wars of conversion. Everything that results from creating uniformity also creates lower quality and harm.
Bottom line; go out of your way to be different. Do no harm, but still be different. Sing in a public place. Wear that comfortable shirt that looks ridiculous. Dance if you want to. Have no fear being different; you are doing a public service. In a world of “A” students, it is the “B” student who is the real genius.
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